What is hidden by alopecia? Alopecia universalis as an onset symptom of an HIV seropositive patient

Abstract

Highly active antiretroviral therapy has contributed to an increase of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) seropositive patients life expectancy. Because of that, comorbidities spectrum associated to this disease has been changing. Dermatologic disorders are one of those examples, being very frequent in these patients. Alopecia areata (AA) is an autoimmune disease, which acts at capillary level, causing hair cycle disruption. It is thought that this is a secondary reaction to genetic and environmental factors. Alopecia universalis is an AA variant, which is extremely rare. To our knowledge, there are scarce cases of alopecia universalis in HIV-positive patients reported in the literature and none of those was in Portugal.