What are the Common Diagnostic Methods of Vitiligo?

The main symptom of vitiligo is the appearance of white spots the disease, however, not all white spots are vitiligo. So it is important to find out how to effectively diagnose vitiligo and to prevent misdiagnosis, mistreatment, and delay of the treatment which cause the aggravate of the condition. The following are a few common methods to diagnose vitiligo:

(1) Filtered ultraviolet examination such as Wood’s lamp. Under Wood's lamp, the melanin absorbs full wavelength ultraviolet light, if melanin decreases, the refraction is strong and light, while melanin increases, the refraction is weak and dark. This is to determine whether the white patches on the patient's skin are suffering from vitiligo.: for the naked eye is not easy to find light spots, when filtered ultraviolet light patches appear as pure white fluorescence, and the surrounding normal skin contrast sharp, clear boundaries.

(2) Histopathological examination: the tissue change of vitiligo is consistent with the destruction of melanocytes. The main changes in the formed vitiligo damage are melanin reduction or even disappearance, reactive keratin proliferation seen in the ultraviolet irradiated skin, and phagocytic pigment cells are also seen in the initial superficial dermis.

(3) Skin CT: 3D skin CT has high accuracy and only requires a short time of scanning and imaging to detect keratinocytes and melanocytes, the relationship between dermis and epidermis, and the relationship between blood vessels, which is convenient, fast, and non-invasive compared to biopsy. It can not only distinguish whether the disease is vitiligo but also meticulously analyze the condition of skin lesions and the degree of melanin loss, etc., which provides an accurate and objective basis for the treatment of skin diseases.

In short, the treatment of vitiligo must have early detection and early treatment. According to many years of experience, the early stage of vitiligo is the golden period for the treatment of vitiligo. After the onset of early vitiligo, the causative factors and the patient's body have not reached a balanced state, so vitiligo patients' white spots are relatively easy to eliminate. In the process of treating early vitiligo, you must go to a regular, professional hospital for treatment, never blindly to an irregular small clinic for treatment, so as not to aggravate the condition to cause serious harm to patients.