Outcome Measures in Cutaneous Autoimmune Disease: Dermatomyositis and Lupus Erythematosus
January 2006
in “
Technical report
”
TLDR The document concludes that better tools are needed to measure skin disease severity in dermatomyositis and cutaneous lupus erythematosus, and introduces the DSSI and CLASI as reliable instruments.
The 2006 document emphasizes the need for validated outcome measures for dermatomyositis (DM) and cutaneous lupus erythematosus (CLE), highlighting the lack of sensitive and clinically meaningful instruments to measure disease severity and treatment effects. It introduces the Dermatomyositis Skin Severity Index (DSSI) and the Cutaneous Lupus Erythematosus Disease Area and Severity Index (CLASI) as reliable tools for assessing skin disease activity in DM and CLE, respectively. The document critiques existing scoring systems like the BILAG, LACC, and SLICC/ACR for their imprecision, particularly in therapeutic trials, and notes the limitations of the Systemic Lupus Activity Measure (SLAM) for dermatologists. A clinical study involving 10 patients demonstrated the effectiveness of the CLASI in reflecting treatment success. The document calls for the development of more disease-specific instruments and an open process to ensure their broad acceptance. The research was supported by NIH grants K24-AR 02207 and 2T32-AR-007465.
