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H emangioma A ctivity and S everity I ndex ( HASI ), an instrument for evaluating infantile hemangioma: development and preliminary validation
Author(s) -
Semkova Kristina,
Kazandjieva Jana,
Kadurina Miroslava,
Tsankov Nikolay
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
international journal of dermatology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.677
H-Index - 93
eISSN - 1365-4632
pISSN - 0011-9059
DOI - 10.1111/ijd.12646
Subject(s) - medicine , immunology
Background Infantile hemangiomas ( IH s) are the most common benign vascular tumors of infancy. Their evaluation is important and requires the use of a unified scoring system. Objectives We designed a novel scoring index, the H emangioma A ctivity and S everity I ndex ( HASI ), for the clinical evaluation of IH s. The purpose of this pilot study was to validate the HASI . Methods The HASI was evaluated for validity by an external panel of experts. The reliability study included 59 children with superficial and mixed hemangiomas. Patients attended an assessment visit and a subsequent visit three days later for a second scoring. They were then followed up monthly for six months and scored at each visit by two investigators separately. Results Interclass correlation coefficients ( ICC s) for inter‐rater reliability were 0.82 (95% confidence interval [ CI ] 0.75–0.88) for IH activity and 0.94 (95% CI 0.91–0.96) for IH severity. Intra‐rater reliability was high, with negligible mean differences of 0.3 and 0.4 points between the two ratings. The average time required to complete the scoring was 2.5 minutes. Conclusions Our preliminary studies on the HASI show promising results in terms of its clinical utility and applicability in practice. It could be used by physicians as an objective instrument for the scoring of IH s.