Evaluation of the alopecia areata patients on tofacitinib treatment during the COVID‐19 pandemic

Aşkın, Özge; Özkoca, Defne; Uzunçakmak, Tuğba Kevser; Serdaroğlu, Server

Tofacitinib is a Janus Kinase 3 inhibitor that is used in the treatment of alopecia areata. We recommended our alopecia areata patients to discontinue their tofacitinib treatment during the COVID‐19 pandemic for an average of 80 days. We aimed to evaluate the drug use and the SARS‐CoV‐2 infection status of alopecia areata patients; and the relationships of recurrence to age, gender, treatment duration, and tofacitinib discontinuation. One‐hundred and ninety‐one (61.4%) patients were off the drug and 120 (38.6%) were on therapy during the pandemic. The relationship between drug discontinuation due to the COVID‐19 pandemic and recurrence was statistically significant (P < .001). Statistically significant relationships of age (P = .013) and treatment duration (P < .001) to recurrence were also found. The change in the SALT score differed between the patients on therapy and off therapy during the pandemic (P < .001). A significant negative correlation was found between the change in the SALT score and treatment duration: the spearman correlation test P = .018. We concluded that the patients may continue to the tofacitinib therapy during the rest of the COVID‐19 pandemic if the benefit outweighed the risk.