Development of a Visual Extension of the Severity of Alopecia Tool for Alopecia Areata

    March 2026 in “ Journal of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology ”
    Reinhart Speeckaert, Arno Belpaire, Elise van Caelenberg, David Dewaele, Lise Vanden Broucke, Isabelle Hoorens, Larysa Neudakh, Els Van Maelsaeke, Marijn M. Speeckaert, Nanja van Geel
    TLDR VESALT improves alopecia areata assessment by including non-scalp areas and is reliable and user-friendly.
    The study introduces VESALT, a visual extension of the Severity of Alopecia Tool (SALT), designed to improve the assessment of alopecia areata by including non-scalp regions and adjusting for androgenetic alopecia. VESALT was validated through a multi-step study involving 10 live patients and 53 photographic cases, showing excellent interrater and intrarater reliability with ICC values up to 0.975. It integrates pattern recognition and provides structured reference images for various alopecia patterns, achieving high agreement among raters. VESALT is user-friendly, interchangeable with SALT, and supports teledermatology applications. Despite its monocentric design and small sample size, VESALT's extended coverage and structured panels may enhance consistency in multicenter studies.
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