FAQ about : VITILIGO ( Skin Desease )

Question:
HELLO! I`D LIKE TO ASK YOU ABOUT SKIN DESEASE CALLED VITILIGO. MY DOCTOR TOLD ME THAT IS UNCURABLE DISEASE, BUT I STILL CAN`T BELIEVE IN THAT.I`D BE GLAD IF YOU COULD TELL ME SOMETHING ABOUT THIS DESEASE IF IT`S CURABLE.I`M NOT SURE IF THIS DISEASE IS CALLED VITILIGO IN ENGLISH, BUT I CAN TELL YOU THAT THESE ARE WHITE SPOTS ON MY SKIN WHAT APPEARED INTHE SUMMER TAKING SUNBATHES. THANK YOU, SANTA.
Answer:
The issue of color loss in the skin has a number of diagnostic possibilities. There are patients who have allergic contact dermatitis to monobenzoyl ether of hydroquinone which is found in some rubber products and the pigment forming cells of the skin are destroyed with this inflammation of the skin which is a permanent condition. It commonly involves the hands and occasionally other parts of the body that have come in contact with this particular rubber.

Some patients have small areas of pigment loss all over their body and may have underlying diabetes. The lesions in this case are very, very small measuring no more than 2-3 mm in diameter.
Individuals who have mixed racial parentage may develop areas of discoloration of their entire body surface often as children. This is genetic and there is little or no treatment for this as well.
Chronic arsenic intoxication has been associated with loss of color characterized by "rain drops on a dusty road" particularly over the extremities but occasionally involving the torso, so that the rain drop areas are lighter in color than the surrounding normal skin. This pigmentary disorder tends to be permanent even after the patient has stopped ingesting arsenic and has been treated for the intoxication.
Areas that have been burned or severely injured with acid or other chemicals may lose their color altogether and this is called post-inflammatory hypopigmentation. In some centers the treatment for this entity is melanocyte grafting but that still is an experimental process.
Vitiligo is an entity of historic interest in that it was often confused with leprosy in the Middle East and on the continent of India. Whereas leprosy and other lesions of the skin are post-inflammatory color losses, this entity does not have a well understood origin. It commonly affects young people. It is centered about the central part of the face, arms, legs, genitalia, perianal tissues, and may become generalized. Hair in the areas of pigmental loss frequently turns white. Some individuals think that graying of the hair is actually a form of vitiligo involving the hair follicle. Treatment in the early form of the disease may be successful in using ultraviolet light, combinations of vultraviolet light A and psoralens both topically and systemically.
To understand this latter entity well and to have more extensive review of the subjects mentioned above I would refer you to a new textbook written by James J. Nordlund, M.D. and colleagues on pigmentation. ("Vitiligo" edited by Seung-Kyung Hann and James J. Nordlund; Blackwell Science Publishing, London). I would encourage you to get a copy of this at your local library if your interest in pigmentary disorders is extensive.

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