Lipid profile in patients with androgenetic alopecia: a meta-analysis

Background: Many studies have reported that androgenetic alopecia (AGA) might be a risk factor for cardiovascular disorders, and the association of AGA with dyslipidaemia has been studied. However, the results were controversial and previous meta-analyses had several critical limitations. Objective: We performed a meta-analysis to clarify whether AGA patients have abnormal lipid profiles. Methods: A literature search was performed using the MEDLINE, EMBASE, The Cochrane Library and KOREA MED databases. Results: We pooled 19 observational studies and performed a meta-analysis to compare serum total cholesterol, serum triglyceride (TG), low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol and high-density lipoprotein (HDL) and the cholesterol levels between AGA and control groups. The serum total cholesterol, TG and LDL cholesterol levels were significantly higher in the AGA group than in the control group, and the standardized mean differences were 0.377 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.182–0.572, P < 0.001), 0.426 (95% CI: 0.164–0.688, P = 0.001) and 0.450 (95% CI: 0.171–0.728, P = 0.002) respectively. In addition, HDL cholesterol level was significantly lower in the AGA group than in the control group, and the standardized mean difference was −0.248 (95% CI: −0.472 to −0.023, P = 0.030). Conclusions: AGA patients showed statistically significant abnormal lipid profiles, and this might partly explain the association between AGA and cardiovascular diseases.