713 Do race and ethnicity impact healthcare utilization and costs? A population study among U.S. non-melanoma skin cancer patients

Abstract

Central Centrifugal Cicatricial Alopecia (CCCA) is a scarring alopecia most common in black women. Its presentation follows a seemingly genetic pattern affecting clusters of women within a family. A study that aimed to elucidate the genetic basis for CCCA found an increased incidence of mutations and decreased expression of PID3, a gene that encodes for peptidyl arginine deiminase type 3, essential for the formation of a normal hair shaft, in scalp samples of patients with CCCA (1). Of note, PID3 is one of three genes implicated in uncombable hair syndrome, a disorder where the hair shaft appears triangular or heart shaped in cross section when viewed under scanning electron microscopy (SEM) (2). It is unclear if CCCA represents a hair shaft disorder and there have been no studies assessing the hair shafts of patients with CCCA. Our study aimed to investigate differences in features of the hair shaft in regard to cross-sectional shape, area, aspect ratio and circularity. The measure of circularity gives numerical information on the shape in cross section with a measure of 1.0 representing a perfect circle and 0.8 representing an oval shape. Hair samples were obtained from the vertex and occipital scalp of CCCA and age matched controls using a gentle pull technique targeting telogen hairs. Images of the hair samples were taken under SEM, and analysis and measurements were obtained using ImageJ software. This study will help elucidate the role hair shaft differences play in the pathogenesis of CCCA.