ABSTRACT
The term central, centrifugal scarring alopecia (CCSA) was recently coined to incorporate several variants of inflammatory, scarring alopecia. The difference between these variants may be due to racial differences or the well-recognized variability in immune responses between individuals. The entities grouped under CCSA include pseudopelade (not Brocq’s pseudopelade), the follicular degeneration syndrome, and folliculitis decalvans. As variants of CCSA, they have the following features in common:
(1) They are chronic and progressive, with eventual spontaneous ‘burn out’ after years or decades;
(2) They are predominantly centered on the crown or vertex; (3) They progress in a roughly symmetrical fashion, with the most active
disease activity occurring in a peripheral zone of variable width, surrounding a central, alopecic zone;
(4) They show both clinical and histological evidence of inflammation in the active, peripheral zone.
