For patients with alopecia areata (AA), the Alopecia Areata Symptom Impact Scale (AASIS) is strongly associated with alopecia areata severity and clinical response, according to a study published online June 3 in the British Journal of Dermatology.

Yael Renert-Yuval, M.D., from The Rockefeller University in New York City, and colleagues examined the utility of the Alopecia Areata Quality of Life Index (AA-QLI) and the AASIS surveys in evaluating quality of life (QOL) in patients with AA at baseline and after treatment with dupilumab.

The researchers found that the AASIS correlated with baseline severity of alopecia tool (SALT) scores and with therapeutic response, while there was no correlation seen for the AA-QLI with AA severity before or after treatment. Across both surveys, itch correlated strongly with serum immunoglobulin E levels. A SALT score of 20 points or less posttreatment was associated with improved patient-reported outcomes using various approaches to estimate a discriminative threshold for decreased impact of AA on QOL (by AASIS), including both AA-related symptoms and items with the daily activities/feelings domain such as feeling sad and feeling anxious or worry.

"While AASIS was correlated with AA severity (measured by SALT) at baseline with significantly improved scores in therapeutic responders, AA-QLI did not show such correlation or improvement," the authors write.

Several authors disclosed financial ties to pharmaceutical companies, including Regeneron/Sanofi, which manufactures dupilumab and funded the trial.

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