[Vitiligo in childhood].

INTRODUCTION

Vitiligo is an acquired, sometimes familial skin depigmentation disorder due to selective destruction of melanocytes. Vitiligo is primarily a disease of the young; in about half of patients it occurs before the age of twenty. The aim of this study was to investigate some epidemiological and clinical characteristics of vitiligo in children, in relation to adults with vitiligo and children without vitiligo.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

The research was conducted in fifty children with clinically diagnosed vitiligo (2 to 16 years of age). Children were compared with control groups of children with other skin diseases (age 2 to 16) and with adults with vitiligo. Each group comprised 30 patients. A detailed history was obtained and physical examination performed in each patient to determine the age of onset, clinical type (segmental or generalized), family history of vitiligo and other autoimmune and/or endocrine diseases, association with halo nevi, poliosis and Koebner phenomenon.

RESULTS

Of the 50 children with vitiligo, 29 (58%) were girls and 21 (42%) boys. The mean age at first visit was 9 years and the mean age of onset was 7 years. Children with vitiligo had positive family history of vitiligo and autoimmune and endocrine diseases more often compared to children without vitiligo (p < 0.05). Children with vitiligo had poliosis, especially in cases of segmental vitiligo, more often compared to their age group (p < 0.001). Children had an increased incidence of segmental vitiligo compared to adults (p < 0.05). Halo nevi were more common in children with generalized vitiligo, in comparison with children without vitiligo (p < 0.01) and adults with vitiligo (p < 0.05).

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION

Our results show that segmental vitiligo and halo nevi occurred significantly more often in children than adults with vitiligo.