Visual guide helps illuminate SALT scores in alopecia areata
MILAN — As treatment options for alopecia areata become available, images of scalp hair loss corresponding to a universal diagnostic and measuring tool is needed for clinicians to accurately assess the severity of disease.
The Severity of Alopecia Tool (SALT) is commonly used in alopecia areata trials; however, many clinicians may be unfamiliar with using SALT scores and with how these scores are seen on actual patients, according to Brett King, MD, PhD, who presented a poster on the tool at the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology Congress.
“Now that there is an FDA approved treatment for severe alopecia areata and there are other therapeutics showing promise, dermatologists now more than ever need to understand the spectrum of disease,” King told Healio. “We’ve not really been challenged up until now to understand mild, moderate and severe disease and a big part of that spectrum is scalp hair loss across the range from 0% to 100%.”
SALT assesses hair loss by scalp quadrant and assigns a score using the weighted sum of percentage of hair loss in the four scalp quadrants. A SALT score of 0 means no hair loss, while a SALT score of 100 is complete hair loss.
Using photographs of patients during the BRAVE-AA1 clinical trial, a placebo-controlled study of baricitinib in alopecia areata patients, King’s poster showed how different SALT scores look on an individual. The photos included patients from diverse racial and sex groups and across different severities of scalp hair loss.
These photos can help clinicians to understand how the SALT score is represented in real life, which can further help to get patients the highest level of care.
“It’s critically important that we develop our ability to assess different amounts of scalp loss because almost certainly payers are going to begin to ask for this information,” King said. “We are going to have to become better at it, and this visual guide is a great first step toward helping to illustrate the spectrum of disease.”