TITLE
[Finasteride: a new drug for the treatment of male hirsutism and
androgenetic alopecia?]. La finasteride: un nuovo farmaco nel trattamento
dell'irsutismo e dell'alopecia androgenica maschile? 41 REFS
AUTHOR
Spinucci G; Pasquali R
ORGANISATION
Dipartimento di Medicina interna e Gastroenterologia, Policlinico S.
Orsola-Malpighi, Bologna.
SOURCE
Clin Ter 1996 Jun; 147 (6): 305-15
LANGUAGE OF PUBLICATION
Italian
ABSTRACT
Finasteride is a drug which inhibits the transformation of testosterone
into its active metabolite, dihydrotestosterone, in the target organs, i.e. the
skin, the scalp, the liver and the prostate. In the pathogenic mechanism of
hirsutism and androgenetic alopecia, and important role is presumably played by
alterations of the mechanisms which transform testosterone into
dihydrotestosterone. In some conditions an increase in dihydrotestosterone has
been demonstrated, due to increased activity of the enzyme 5 alpha-reductase.
The effect of finasteride develops above all at the level of type II 5
alpha-reductase. Recent studies have evaluated the effect of finasteride in
patients of both sexes with hirsutism and androgenetic alopecia. In women with
various forms of hyperandrogenism, the use of the drug at the doses commonly
used for the treatment of benign prostatic hyperplasia seems to have induced a
significant reduction in the degree of hirsutism. Furthermore, both in animals
and men with alopecia, the drug seems to have led to an increase in the number
and an improvement in the shape of the follicles in the anagen phase, and a
simultaneous decrease of dehydrotestosterone at the level of the scalp. This
study represents a review of the main results obtained over the last two years
and reports the prospects which the use of finasteride may have in this
context. (AUTHOR)
MJTR: Alopecia DT. Finasteride TU. Hirsutism
DT. Stanolone PK. Testosterone PK.
MNTR: Androgens PK. English Abstract. Enzyme
Inhibitors PK. Enzyme Inhibitors TU. Female. Finasteride PK. Human. Liver DE.
Liver ME. Male. Prostate DE. Prostate ME. Scalp DE. Scalp ME. Sex Factors. Skin
DE. Skin ME. Stanolone AI. Testosterone AI. JOURNAL ARTICLE. REVIEW. REVIEW,
TUTORIAL
RNUM: 0 (Androgens); 0 (Enzyme Inhibitors);
521-18-6 (Stanolone); 57-85-2 (Testosterone); 98319-26-7 (Finasteride)
GEOT: ITALY
IDEN: ISSN: 0009-9074. JOURNAL-CODE: DKN.
ENTRY-DATE: 961115. IM-DATE: 9701.
ACCE: 96397211