BOCA RATON, Fla. – There’s new hope for nearly 7 million Americans living with an autoimmune disorder that causes partial or total hair loss.
Dermatologist Dr. Jeffrey Fromowitz said studies have shown that treatment with an oral dose of a drug called Baricitinib provided dramatic and lasting hair growth.
The medication is already approved to treat various inflammatory conditions affecting the skin and joints.
“In this case with hair, you’re looking at 80 percent of patients who may have had hair loss from immune-mediated alopecia and then looking at a degree of regrowth and the vast majority of patients had more than 50 percent recovery in their lost hair,” he said.
Fromowitz said the medication, which is part of a class of drugs called Janas-kinase inhibitors, will not work on hereditary hair loss, and while biopsies are a great tool for cancer screenings, it can take days to know the results.
Now, researchers from Columbia University have proposed an alternative tool that is expected to speed up the process.
Medi-Scape is a high-speed 3D microscope that is capable of getting images and feedback of tissue instantly without the need to wait for lab testing.
This technology could also help doctors make decisions about how best to cut out a tumor and ensure there is none left behind.