Vitiligo Causes, Symptoms, Diagnosis, Complications, and Treatment

Vitiligo is a skin disease that causes skin discolouration on different body parts. The disease can impact any area of the body's skin and potentially spread to other parts. It can happen to people of all skin types, and it can be stressful and embarrassing because it affects your appearance.

What is Vitiligo?

Causes of Vitiligo

• Autoimmune disease is when your body's immune system mistakenly considers healthy melanocytes foreign invaders and produces antibodies that kill the melanocytes.
• Genetic alterations: A genetic mutation or alteration to your body's DNA may affect how your melanocytes function. Researchers have linked an increased incidence of vitiligo to more than 30 genes .
• Stress: Regular mental or physical stress, especially after an accident, can change how much pigment melanocyte cells produce.
• Environmental triggers : Exposure to harmful chemicals and UV light can affect your melanocyte cells' ability to function.

Types of Vitiligo

• Generalized Vitiligo: The most prevalent kind of Vitiligo appears all over the body.
• Segmental Vitiligo: This type only affects a specific body part, such as the hands or face.
• Mucosal vitiligo: It affects the vaginal and oral mucous membranes.
• Focal Vitiligo: The spots develop in a small area and do not spread in a specific pattern until one or two years.
• Trichome: A typical patch pattern develops with a white centre, a region with lighter pigmentation, surrounded by an area of your natural skin tone.

Symptoms of Vitiligo

• Areas of skin or mucous membranes that have lost pigment appear paler than your skin tone.
• You may notice grey, silver, or white hair patches on your body.
• The white patches might not change much after they appear, but they might eventually enlarge.
• There can be cycles of stability and loss of pigment in different body parts.
• Larger patches may expand slowly but typically remain in one portion for a more extended period.
• Smaller macules change places over time as different skin parts lose and regain colour.

Complications of Vitiligo

• Sensitive skin: Because no melanocytes are on the affected skin, people may be more susceptible to the sun's rays in those areas. Instead of tanning, this might soon burn the skin on your body.
• Eye abnormalities: Individuals may have variations in colour in portions of the eye and retinal abnormalities. Though the retina, or iris, may occasionally become inflamed, vision is typically unaffected.
• Autoimmune disease: Individuals with Vitiligo may have a higher risk of developing autoimmune diseases such as anaemia, diabetes, and hypothyroidism.
• Emotional stress: People with discoloured skin may feel embarrassed and have low self-esteem due to their appearance. As a result, someone may experience anxiety or despair and wish to withdraw or stay away from social situations.

Diagnosis of Vitiligo

Treatment for Vitiligo

Medications

• Medications that reduce inflammation: The affected skin may regain its colour after using a corticosteroid cream, especially during the early stages of Vitiligo. For patients whose disease is getting worse quickly, corticosteroid injections or pills may be an option.
• Medicines to boost the immune system: Drugs can influence the immune system to fight off the disease. Ointments containing calcineurin inhibitors, like pimecrolimus (Elidel) or tacrolimus (Protopic), may work well for those with minor problems, particularly on the face and neck.

Therapies

• Light therapy: Researchers have observed that phototherapy using narrow-band ultraviolet B (UVB) can halt or decrease the growth of active vitiligo. It may have more efficacy when used with calcineurin inhibitors or corticosteroids for a few weeks.
• Combined psoralen and light therapy : This treatment combines light therapy with psoralen, a plant chemical, to restore colour to the light patches.
• Depigmentation: If other treatments fail, the unaffected areas of the skin receive a depigmenting chemical, which gradually lightens the skin and blends in with the discoloured areas.

Surgical Procedure

• Skin Grafting: Your physician will apply tiny pieces of pigmented, healthy skin to lost regions during this process. Your physician may use this process if you have isolated vitiligo areas.
• Blister Grafting: Your doctor forms blisters on your pigmented skin using suction for this surgery. Your doctor then transplants the blister tips to the discoloured skin.
• Transfusion of suspended cells: During this process, your physician collects some tissues from the normal skin, treats them in solution, and transplants them into the affected area. The outcomes of this repigmentation process become apparent within a month.

Future Therapies

• Researchers are investigating the possibility of inserting afamelanotide, a medication, beneath the skin to promote the growth of melanocytes.
• Prostaglandin E2 gel, a medication, can help with melanocyte management and skin colour restoration.