Coudability hairs, more closely perceived by trichoscopy, are useful-markers for disease activity in AA and provide a surrogate-marker for the hair-pull test.

When examining patients with alopecia areata (AA), I am often questioned by my students about the meaning of the term coudability hairs. Their curiosity, along with the interesting historical events involved in this matter, motivated me to revisit this subject.

Coudability hairs are hairs which, when pushed inwards, show a kink towards the scalp. The hairs received their name in 1984 from Shuster as the ability of hair to bend/kink reminded the author of the coude catheter. [12]

Coudability hairs show a tendency to bend, producing an obvious kink. These hairs are not pathognomonic of AA, but they are a useful clinical feature and marker of disease activity. 20 In our study, a significant association was found between CH and severity of AA.

MeSH terms Alopecia Areata / diagnosis* Hair / pathology History, 20th Century Humans Terminology as Topic* Wales Wit and Humor as Topic / history

Multiple trichoscopic signs that indicate active disease: black dots (blue arrows), broken hairs (red arrow), exclamation-mark hair (green arrow), and coudability hairs (purple arrow).

Skin Appendage Disord. 2016 Sep;2 (1-2):76-78. doi: 10.1159/000448811. Epub 2016 Sep 6. 1 Dermatology Department, Instituto de Dermatologia Professor Rubem David Azulay, Santa Casa de Misericórdia do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Jun 1, 2010 · Coudability hairs, more closely perceived by trichoscopy, are useful‐markers for disease activity in AA and provide a surrogate‐marker for the hair‐pull test.

Coudability hairs are a helpful clinical feature and a sign of disease activity even though they are not pathognomonic of AA (observed also in chemotherapy-induced alopecia) (26).

Mar 12, 2012 · They identified yellow dots, black dots, broken hairs, coudability hairs, and clustered short vellus hairs (<10 mm) as the most common features. 2,33 Black dots and yellow dots correlated with disease severity whereas black dots, tapering hairs, and broken hairs correlated with disease activity.