The Alopecia Areata Investigator Global Assessment Scale: A Measure for Evaluating Clinically Meaningful Success in Clinical Trials

January 2020 in “ British Journal of Dermatology ”

Kathleen W. Wyrwich, Helen Kitchen, S.L. Knight, Natalie V. J. Aldhouse, Jake Macey, Fabio P. Nunes, Yves Dutronc, Natasha Atanaskova Mesinkovska, Justin Ko, Brett King

alopecia areata Alopecia Areata Investigator Global Assessment scalp-hair loss eyebrow involvement eyelash involvement patient-focused drug development AA AA-IGA hair loss FDA

TLDR The AA-IGA scale reliably measures treatment success in alopecia areata by considering both clinician and patient views.

The study developed the Alopecia Areata Investigator Global Assessment (AA-IGA) scale to evaluate treatment success in alopecia areata (AA) by incorporating both clinician and patient perspectives. It involved 30 patients with ≥ 50% scalp-hair loss and 10 expert dermatologists. The AA-IGA is an ordinal measure with five severity categories, reflecting distinct gradations of scalp-hair loss. Treatment success was perceived as achieving ≤ 20% scalp-hair loss, with most patients considering 70-90% regrowth as successful. The study confirmed the AA-IGA as a reliable measure, aligning with the FDA's emphasis on patient-focused drug development, though it was limited by its focus on U.S. adults and overrepresentation of patients with eyebrow/eyelash involvement.

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