Evaluation of Scanoskin for the assessment of vitiligo
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Comparison of Scanoskin with planimetry as an objective measure of vitiligo.
IRAS ID
218156
Contact name
Lucy J Thomas
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Chelsea & Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
3 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
Vitiligo is a common, disfiguring skin complaint which affects between 0.5 and 2% of the world population and which presents with depigmented patches of skin. Highly stigmatising it has a profound psychological impact on those affected and negatively impacts quality of life. Efficacy of current therapies which include topical steroids/calcineurin inhibitors and ultraviolet light are limited and new treatments are required. Numerous papers including the 2010 Cochrane review have highlighted the need for a consensus on outcome measures which could then facilitate meta-analyses and provide robust clinical recommendations. No standard method of measuring depigmentation has been identified to date and current best clinical practice relies on clinician assessment and use of various non-standardised grading systems which are neither robust nor objective. In the research setting planimetry is accepted as the gold standard for measuring surface area of depigmentation, however this method is time consuming, can be subject to intrainterpretor variability and does not detect sub-clinical disease or response to treatment. Measurement of skin pigment levels can be achieved using portable devices such as Scanoskin using an imaging modality called Spectrophotometric Intracutaneous analysis scope (SIAscope). Unlike other digital methods reported in the literature, this has been validated as a quantitative measure of melanin content in the skin, it is portable, easy to use and not prohibitively expensive. The aim of this study is to determine if the scanoskin is equivalent to current gold standard of planimetry in assessing vitiligo surface area and thus be utilised to provide a meaningful assessment of new and existing treatment modalities. In addition we will assess whether Scanoskin is able to identify subclinical disease which could affect a clinicians decision regarding treatment strategies, how clinician assessment varies and also assess whether improvements in pigmentation correlate with patient satisfaction and quality of life scores.
REC name
North of Scotland Research Ethics Committee 2
REC reference
17/NS/0042
Date of REC Opinion
14 Apr 2017
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion