Abstract
TO THE EDITOR.— The article by Hordinsky et al1 on suppressor cells and markers of autoimmunity of alopecia areata (AA) prompted us to report recent results obtained in the study of non-organ-specific autoantibodies in a larger series of patients.A total of 62 patients were studied: 42 (M/F ratio, 23/19) with AA, eight (3/5) with alopecia totalis (AT) and 12 (8/4) with alopecia universalis (AU). The median age was 30 years (8 to 62) for AA, 15 years (6 to 50) for AT and 22.5 (9 to 52) years for AU. No patient was under steroid treatment at the moment of the test and 37 of the 62 were receiving topical treatment (DNCB or squaric acid dibutylester). Most patients were in the "stable" category. Only two patients had clinical evidence of associated (thyroid) diseases.The overall prevalence of non-organ-specific autoantibodies tested with an indirect immunofluorescence method on rat substrates
