The clinical behavior of vitiligo has not been clearly understood and hypothesis concerning the pathogenesis of the disease has been confusing and contradictory though autoimmune mechanisms have been considered important by many authors.

The purpose of this study was to develop a better understanding of the clinical features and pathogenesis of vitiligo.

We investigated clinical features of vitiligo in 1315 patients, and also compared the clinical course and features of non-segmental type(type A) and segmental type(type B) vitiligo patients to see whether the two types of vitiligo have a different pathogenic mechanism.

Previously reported clinical patterns of the disease were reviewed and compared with our data, and the different clinical findings between the two types which supported the hypothesis of Koga et al. that type A and type B vitiligo had a different pathogenesis and autoimmune mechanisms played a role only in type A were shown.

We investigated the clinical characteristics of vitiligo in Korea and showed that the type A vitiligo might have a different pathogenic mechanism with type B.