Many people know that vitiligo is mainly manifested by white patches on the surface of the skin, and vitiligo is due to the loss of skin melanocyte function caused by an unknown mechanism, resulting in a complete loss of pigment on the skin mucosa that occurs widely or locally, resulting in the appearance of massive white patches.

It is more common in young women, and is usually located on the back, wrists, forearms, face, neck, and genitals. Due to the prominent symptoms of vitiligo, white patches in the human body are often mistaken for vitiligo, but it is not.Here are a few of the conditions that cause white spots on the surface of the skin.

The following four diseases often cause the development of vitiligo:

1. Simple pityriasis

Pityriasis simplex is a kind of scaly hypopigmented patches that tend to occur in adolescents and children, and it is more common on the face, and the good season is spring, but it can also occur in summer, autumn and winter, and generally resolves on its own without treatment.

The cause of pityriasis alba is not well understood, and some hereditary atopic dermatitis can cause pityriasis albicans.

Pityriasis albicans in the early stages of the disease may appear as red patches of varying sizes with slightly raised edges, which may appear alone or in multiple cases.After a while, the red patches disappear into pale patches with indistinct margins that are mildly hypopigmented, and the patches on the surface of the plaques are scaly, dry, chaff-like flakes, sometimes inconspicuous or even difficult to spot.

Clinically, pityriasis alba is often mistaken for vitiligo, which is milky or porcelain-white plaques that are free of dandruff and well-defined.

2. Pityriasis

Palliza versicolor, commonly known as sweat spots. Moss versicolor is a mild, usually asymptomatic, chronic fungal infection of the stratum corneum that often appears on the affected skin as yellow-brown spots or small white patches around the pores, mostly on the neck, armpits, upper arms, chest, back, and abdomen, but not on the scalp.

The disease is chronic, often worsening in summer and lessening in winter, and can easily spread if left untreated. Moss versicolor is usually light brown in the initial stage, but it can also show light white patches with well-defined borders and pityrias-like scales attached to the surface.

3. Poor blood nevus

Anemia nevus is a congenital dysfunction that occurs in newborns or children due to abnormal development of vascular tissue, resulting in local tissue hypopigmentation, and is more common in women than in men.

The disease is relatively uncommon and usually presents as single or multiple pale patches of irregular shape and size on the trunk, face, and limbs, which may be linear, round, or oval.

Anemia nevi are benign lesions, and usually do not cause functional damage to the skin, organ, or system, except that the lesion area is large and affects the appearance.

The disease will gradually stabilize after a period of development, and the proportion can be expanded as the patient grows and develops, and the shape and size of the plaques will not change much under normal circumstances, nor will the number increase.

4. No pigmented nevus

Pigmented nevi are hereditary disorders of unknown etiology that occur in infants and young children, often causing skin lesions, usually in stages along the nervous system.

It usually manifests as widespread or localized light-colored plaques with blurred borders, mostly jagged edges, no pigment proliferation around the plaques, and sometimes light brown miliary to lentil-sized freckles.

To sum up, not only vitiligo will appear white patches, the above four diseases can appear different degrees of white patches, so it is necessary to pay attention to vitiligo to distinguish, because the symptoms may be very similar in different stages of disease development, it is difficult to distinguish by yourself, you should seek medical attention as soon as possible.