Comparing the Efficiency of Elidel Cream and Elidel Accompanied With Tretinoin Cream in Treatment of Alopecia Areata

Abstract

Background: Alopecia areata is a disorder causing local or total body hair loss. Various therapeutic modalities have been used for the treatment of this disease; however, none of them were completely effective. Objectives: In this study, we compared the efficacy of topical Elidel alone and Elidel accompanied with tretinoin in the treatment of alopecia areata. Patients and Methods: This randomized controlled clinical trial was performed on patients with alopecia areata in Rasul-e Akram Hospital in Tehran, Iran, from 2010 to 2011. Patients in the Elidel group applied Elidel 1% cream twice a day. The second group received 1% Elidel in the mornings and 0.05% tretinoin in the evenings. The results compared after three months of treatment. Results: A total of 80 patients were randomly allocated to two treatment groups. The mean age of the patients was 21.8 ± 3.9 and 21.6 ± 4.4 years in the Elidel and Elidel plus tretinoin groups, respectively (P = 0.879). There were 26 males (65%) in the Elidel and 24 (60%) male patients in Elidel plus tretinoin groups (P = 0.481). In The Elidel group, the complete cure was observed in eight patients (20%), relative cure in 14 (35%), no change in 10 (25%), and disease aggravation in 8 (20%) cases; in the Elidel plus tretinoin group, the complete cure was reported in 18 patients (45%), relative cure in 12 (30%), no change in 8 (20%), and disease aggravation in 2 (5%) (P = 0.048) cases. The cure rate in both groups significantly changed in comparison to the previous findings (P < 0.001). Conclusions: Our study showed that the combined use of Elidel and tretinoin was more effective than Elidel alone.