Investigators have found that transplant recipients, especially those with comorbid graft-vs-host disease, may be at an elevated risk of developing vitiligo, according to a recent study published by Bang et al in JAMA Dermatology. Investigators used the National Health Insurance Service database of Korea to analyze the outcomes of 23,829 patients who underwent solid organ or hematopoietic stem cell transplant between January 2010 and December 2017 and 119,145 age- and sex-matched controls to determine the incidence and risk of vitiligo. Compared with controls, the investigators discovered that patients who had undergone transplants (adjusted hazard ratio [HR] = 1.73, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.35–2.22)—including those who received kidney and liver transplants—had an elevated risk of vitiligo. However, the patients who received hematopoietic stem cell transplants (adjusted HR = 12.69, 95% CI = 5.11–31.50), those with allogenic grafts (adjusted HR = 14.43, 95% CI = 5.61–37.15), and those with comorbid graft-vs-host disease (adjusted HR = 24.09, 95% CI = 9.16–63.35) were at the greatest risk of developing vitiligo compared with controls. The investigators concluded that physicians should be aware of the association between the risk of vitiligo, transplant, and graft-vs-host disease to more effectively implement multidisciplinary monitoring strategies.


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