title: PartheniumDermatitis Severity Score to Assess Clinical Severity of Disease.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Partheniumdermatitis is the most common type of airborne contact dermatitis in India. It is a chronic disease of a remitting and relapsing course with significant morbidity and distress, but there is no scoring system to assess its severity.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To design a scoring system for the assessment of clinical severity of disease inPartheniumdermatitis and to use this scoring system in various studies to determine its sensitivity, specificity, and reproducibility.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In our first few studies onPartheniumdermatitis, we designed and used a basic clinical severity scoring system based on itching, morphology of the lesions, and areas involved. However, in subsequent studies, we modified it to the present scoring system asPartheniumdermatitis severity score (PDSS). Our studies showed the high sensitivity of PDSS in characterization of the disease severity at the given point of time, as well as to determine the efficacy of a prescribed treatment modality which was reliable and reproducible.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Thus, PDSS may be used by clinicians for appropriate scoring of the clinical severity ofPartheniumdermatitis and in monitoring the disease response to therapy.
authors.affiliation: Department of Dermatology and Venereology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India.
authors.forename: Kaushal K
authors.initials: KK
authors.lastname: Verma
authors.affiliation: Department of Dermatology and Venereology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India.
authors.forename: Arika
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bansal
authors.affiliation: Department of Dermatology and Venereology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India.
authors.forename: Neetu
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Bhari
authors.affiliation: Department of Dermatology and Venereology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India.
authors.forename: Gomathy
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Sethuraman
keywords: Parthenium dermatitis; score; severity