Comorbid autoimmune diseases in patients with vitiligo: A cross-sectional study

Abstract

Background: Few large-scale studies have quantified the burden of comorbid autoimmune diseases in patients with vitiligo.

Objective: We sought to determine the prevalence of comorbid autoimmune diseases in patients with vitiligo.

Methods: We conducted a manual chart review on a cohort of 1873 patients with vitiligo seen between January 2002 and October 2012 at the Henry Ford Health System in Detroit, MI. Patients were excluded if they had fewer than 2 dermatology notes (N = 595) or if they were never given a diagnosis of vitiligo by a dermatologist (N = 180).

Results: Of 1098 patients with vitiligo, nearly 20% had at least 1 comorbid autoimmune disease. Compared with the general US population, we found a higher prevalence of thyroid disease (12.9%, P < .001), alopecia areata (3.8%, P < .001), inflammatory bowel disease (0.9%, P = .046), pernicious anemia (0.5%, P = .007), systemic lupus erythematosus (0.3%, P = .048), Guillain-Barre syndrome (0.3%, P < .001), discoid lupus (0.2%, P = .003), linear morphea (0.2%, P < .001), myasthenia gravis (0.2%, P = .002), and Sjögren syndrome (0.2%, P = .011).

Limitations: The study lacked a control group. This was a single-institution study with possible selection bias, and thus the findings may not be representative of the overall population of patients with vitiligo.

Conclusions: We observed a high prevalence of comorbid autoimmune diseases in patients with vitiligo and report several new associations.

Keywords: alopecia areata; associations; autoimmune disease; comorbidities; prevalence; thyroid disease; vitiligo.