title: Temporal triangular alopecia: significance of trichoscopy in differential diagnosis.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  There are only two case reports in literature regarding the trichoscopic features of temporal triangular alopecia (TTA). Differential diagnosis of other types of localized alopecia such as alopecia areata is necessary in some cases.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate the potential benefit of trichoscopy in the clinical diagnosis of TTA.
  
  
  METHODS
  Nine patients with a clinical diagnosis of TTA were included in the study. Trichoscopic examination was performed by a polarized-light handheld dermatoscope with a 10-fold magnification. The images were obtained by a digital camera that produced imagery with a 3-fold optical zoom.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Short vellus hairs, vellus hair length diversity and white hairs were encountered in all subjects, while white dots, honeycomb pigment pattern, arborising red lines and epidermal scale were noted in 22%-33% of them. None of the cases showed trichoscopic features such as tapering hairs, yellow dots or loss of follicular openings.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We suggest that it seems possible to differentiate TTA by a handheld dermatoscope. Short vellus hairs with length diversity and white hairs in the absence of diagnostic features of other types of localized alopecia should be considered in favour of TTA.
authors.affiliation: Department of Dermatology, Medical Park Hospital, Ordu, Turkey.
authors.forename: Ö
authors.initials: Ö
authors.lastname: Karadağ Köse
authors.affiliation: Department of Dermatology, Faculty of Medicine, Başkent University, Ankara, Turkey.
authors.forename: A T
authors.initials: AT
authors.lastname: Güleç
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000505:Alopecia / Q000145:classification / Q000473:pathology*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D046169:Dermoscopy; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D055815:Young Adult