Commenting on the 25 children who presented with congenital AA, the authors wrote that this is “an extremely rare and infrequently reported form of AA.
“This is an interesting and important finding, because AA has traditionally been described as an acquired disease,” they added.
In their cohort overall, 25% had a family history of AA, with 8% having more than three first-degree relatives with AA. The researchers said that the percentage of children with AA and a positive family history ranges from 8% to 52% in the literature.
“The predominant presentation of AA types in our cohort (61.4%) was severe hair loss (76%-100% of scalp hair loss). This is comparable with a European study reporting a prevalence of 65%. Other studies on childhood AA conducted in Asian and Arab populations observed mainly mild cases,” they wrote.