Hair Loss and Cardiovascular Risk

It’s quite a remarkable thing that patients with many types of hair loss are at increased risk for heart disease. Several good quality studies have emerged in the last 10 years showing us that androgenetic alopecia, alopecia areata, lichen planopilaris and folliculitis decalvans have some degree of increased risk of cardiovascular disease. For many of these conditions, it appears that patients in these groups have increased risks of metabolic syndrome which in turn influences some of this risk.

REFERENCES

Kim SR et al. Association of Primary Cicatricial Alopecia with Subsequent Cardiovascular Disease. J Invest Dermatol. 2023 Nov 19:S

Caro-Chang et al. Androgenetic alopecia and its association with metabolic syndrome: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Acta Medica Philippina 2019; 53: 122–131.

Qui Y et al. Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of the Association Between Metabolic Syndrome and Androgenetic Alopecia. Acta Derm Venereol. 2022 Feb 8;102:adv00645

Wu D-x, Wu L-f, Yang Z-x. [Association between androgenetic alopecia and metabolic syndrome: a meta-analysis]. Zhejiang Da Xue Xue Bao Yi Xue Ban 2014; 43: 597–601 (in Chinese)

Conic RRZ et al. Prevalence of cardiac and metabolic diseases among patients with alopecia areata [published online August 11, 2020]. J Eur Acad Dermatol Venereol. doi: 10.1111/jdv.16864 -

Joshi et al. Comorbidities associated with lichen planopilaris: a case-control study using the All of Us database. Int J Dermatol. 2022 Oct 2.

Conic et al. Exploring the association between lichen planopilaris, cardiovascular and metabolic disorders. J Eur Acad Dermatol Venereol 2021 Nov;35(11):e826-e828.