Abstract
Quantitative evaluation of itch is important in assessing the treatment efficacy of atopic dermatitis (AD). Especially for the judgment of a specific anti-pruritic therapy, itch measurement should be performed according to unified standard criteria worldwide. From this viewpoint the recent advances in the evaluation of itch were presented in the talk. The validation and harmonization studies of the scales to quantify itch such as verbal rating scale (VRS), visual analogue scale (VAS) and numerical rating scale (NRS) were cited and mentioned. In the latter part of the talk, the development and validation study of the Japanese version of the 5D-Itch scale (5D-J) were presented. 5D was created as a self-administered questionnaire consisting of 5 domains of itch such as duration, degree, direction, disability and distribution. The 5D-J was produced following the standard protocols of forward/backward translation with pretest. A total of 169 adult patients with AD participated in the study to test the reliability, validity and responsiveness of the 5D-J. The 5D-J score correlated significantly with VAS score of itch intensity (r=0.666, p<0.0001), with SCORAD score of the skin lesion (r=0.385, p<0.0001), and with DLQI score (r=0.671, p<0.0001). Among the 5 domains of the questionnaire, “degree” domain showed a strong correlation with VAS, “degree” and “distribution” domains showed a relatively high correlation with SCORAD, and “degree” and “disability” domains showed a strong correlation with DLQI. Internal consistency and test-retest reliability were satisfactory. Changes in 5D-J score over the course of 4 to 12 weeks correlated well with those of VAS suggesting a good responsiveness. Patients' evaluation revealed that it took 3.5 +/- 2.1 minutes to complete 5D-J and they found it easier to express the extent of itch compared to VAS. We conclude that the 5D-J is a reliable tool to measure itch in adult patients with AD.Skin Research, Suppl. 23:1-6, 2015
