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Development and pilot-testing of the Alopecia Areata Assessment Tool (ALTO)

BACKGROUND: Alopecia areata (AA) is an autoimmune disease characterized by non-scarring hair loss. The lack of a definitive biomarker or formal diagnostic criteria for AA limits our ability to define the epidemiology of the disease. In this study, we developed and tested the Alopecia Areata Assessme...

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Autores principales: Li, David G., Huang, Kathie P., Xia, Fan Di, Joyce, Cara, Scott, Deborah A., Qureshi, Abrar A., Mostaghimi, Arash
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5991373/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29874239
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0196517
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author Li, David G.
Huang, Kathie P.
Xia, Fan Di
Joyce, Cara
Scott, Deborah A.
Qureshi, Abrar A.
Mostaghimi, Arash
author_facet Li, David G.
Huang, Kathie P.
Xia, Fan Di
Joyce, Cara
Scott, Deborah A.
Qureshi, Abrar A.
Mostaghimi, Arash
author_sort Li, David G.
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Alopecia areata (AA) is an autoimmune disease characterized by non-scarring hair loss. The lack of a definitive biomarker or formal diagnostic criteria for AA limits our ability to define the epidemiology of the disease. In this study, we developed and tested the Alopecia Areata Assessment Tool (ALTO) in an academic medical center to validate the ability of this questionnaire in identifying AA cases. METHODS: The ALTO is a novel, self-administered questionnaire consisting of 8 closed-ended questions derived by the Delphi method. This prospective pilot study was administered during a 1-year period in outpatient dermatology clinics. Eligible patients (18 years or older with chief concern of hair loss) were recruited consecutively. No patients declined to participate. The patient’s hair loss diagnosis was determined by a board-certified dermatologist. Nine scoring algorithms were created and used to evaluate the accuracy of the ALTO in identifying AA. RESULTS: 239 patients (59 AA cases and 180 non-AA cases) completed the ALTO and were included for analysis. Algorithm 5 demonstrated the highest sensitivity (89.8%) while algorithm 3 demonstrated the highest specificity (97.8%). Select questions were also effective in clarifying disease phenotype. CONCLUSION: In this study. we have successfully demonstrated that ALTO is a simple tool capable of discriminating AA from other types of hair loss. The ALTO may be useful to identify individuals with AA within large populations.
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spelling pubmed-59913732018-06-08 Development and pilot-testing of the Alopecia Areata Assessment Tool (ALTO) Li, David G. Huang, Kathie P. Xia, Fan Di Joyce, Cara Scott, Deborah A. Qureshi, Abrar A. Mostaghimi, Arash PLoS One Research Article BACKGROUND: Alopecia areata (AA) is an autoimmune disease characterized by non-scarring hair loss. The lack of a definitive biomarker or formal diagnostic criteria for AA limits our ability to define the epidemiology of the disease. In this study, we developed and tested the Alopecia Areata Assessment Tool (ALTO) in an academic medical center to validate the ability of this questionnaire in identifying AA cases. METHODS: The ALTO is a novel, self-administered questionnaire consisting of 8 closed-ended questions derived by the Delphi method. This prospective pilot study was administered during a 1-year period in outpatient dermatology clinics. Eligible patients (18 years or older with chief concern of hair loss) were recruited consecutively. No patients declined to participate. The patient’s hair loss diagnosis was determined by a board-certified dermatologist. Nine scoring algorithms were created and used to evaluate the accuracy of the ALTO in identifying AA. RESULTS: 239 patients (59 AA cases and 180 non-AA cases) completed the ALTO and were included for analysis. Algorithm 5 demonstrated the highest sensitivity (89.8%) while algorithm 3 demonstrated the highest specificity (97.8%). Select questions were also effective in clarifying disease phenotype. CONCLUSION: In this study. we have successfully demonstrated that ALTO is a simple tool capable of discriminating AA from other types of hair loss. The ALTO may be useful to identify individuals with AA within large populations. Public Library of Science 2018-06-06 /pmc/articles/PMC5991373/ /pubmed/29874239 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0196517 Text en © 2018 Li et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Li, David G.
Huang, Kathie P.
Xia, Fan Di
Joyce, Cara
Scott, Deborah A.
Qureshi, Abrar A.
Mostaghimi, Arash
Development and pilot-testing of the Alopecia Areata Assessment Tool (ALTO)
title Development and pilot-testing of the Alopecia Areata Assessment Tool (ALTO)
title_full Development and pilot-testing of the Alopecia Areata Assessment Tool (ALTO)
title_fullStr Development and pilot-testing of the Alopecia Areata Assessment Tool (ALTO)
title_full_unstemmed Development and pilot-testing of the Alopecia Areata Assessment Tool (ALTO)
title_short Development and pilot-testing of the Alopecia Areata Assessment Tool (ALTO)
title_sort development and pilot-testing of the alopecia areata assessment tool (alto)
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5991373/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29874239
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0196517
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