Vitiligo and auto immune diseases: A survey of 100 patients

Vitiligo is an autoimmune skin disease which is characterized by depigmented patches due to loss of pigment cells. Evidence suggests that cell-mediated immunity plays a role in melanocyte destruction while some patients have antibodies to melanocytes or melanocytic proteins. Vitiligo is strongly associated with a number of autoimmune disorders. Autoimmune thyroiditis is the most prevalent disease with a prevalence of 21%1. Diabetes mellitus type I is found in 1-7% of the patients with vitiligo 2 and pernicious anemia is reported in 5% of the vitiligo patients 3. The goal of this study was to determine the association of vitiligo with other autoimmune diseases (diabetes, thyroid dysfunction, pernicious anemia) in Iranian patients. From January 2009 until January 2010, one hundred vitiligo patients were randomly selected (through simple random selection) from the outpatient clinic of Razi Hospital.