Acne and other dermatologic manifestations of Korean polycystic ovary syndrome patients

Abstract

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is a common endocrinologic disorder in child-bearing age women and has complex signs and symptoms. In general, PCOS has three characteristics: hyperandrogenism (HA), irregular menstruation (IM), polycystic ovary (PCO). According to these characteristics, PCOS can be divided into four subtypes. PCOS can cause not only obstetrical complications such as menstrual irregularity, atypical uterine bleeding, infertility, gestational hypertension but also non-obstetrical complications such as type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome, cardiovascular disease. These non-obstetrical complications may be derived from long term exposure of hyperandrogenism, insulin-resistance and hyperestrogenemia in PCOS patients. Moreover, PCOS has dermatological manifestations as hirsutism, acne, alopecia, mainly caused by hyperandrogenism. We investigated 24 PCOS patients who visited Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. Acne-specific questionnaire, physical examination and blood sampling were performed. The mean age of participants was 24.4 and mean body mass index was 22.4 kg/ m2. IM/HA/PCO subtype of PCOS was most common and occupied 70.8%. Acanthosis nigricans was detected in 16.7% of patients. The mean of modified Ferriman-Gallwey (F-G) score which scoring degree of hirsutism, was 7.6, quite high. Androgenetic alopecia and seborrhea were detected in 12.5% and 37.5% of patients, respectively. Acne was observed in all patients except one. The mean grade of acne according to Cunliffes grading system was 2.0 in face, 0.6 in chest, 0.8 in back. This is the first investigation of dermatological manifestation in Korean PCOS patients and we especially examined the characteristics of acne lesions.