Autoimmune Blistering Disease: Outcome Measures

Autoimmune blistering diseases (AIBD) represent a heterogeneous group of chronic, debilitating diseases. It has been shown that both active disease and past damage from AIBD can cause significant morbidity and negatively impact on the patient’s function. It is therefore important that the outcome measures of AIBD used in practice are objective, reliable, and specific. The development and validation of outcome measures specific to AIBD have been a significant point of focus in recent years. Spanning over a decade, the efforts and collaborations of various groups internationally have culminated in the development of several measures for disease severity and quality of life in AIBD. These include instruments such as the Autoimmune Bullous Skin Disorder Intensity Score (ABSIS), Pemphigus Disease Area Index (PDAI), and Bullous Pemphigoid Disease Area Index (BPDAI), which have all shown to be promising tools in the assessment of disease severity and treatment response. Additionally, the important tools to measure changes in the patient’s quality of life (QOL) due to disease burden and treatment have been increasingly recognized. This has resulted in the development of the Autoimmune Bullous Disease Quality of Life (ABQOL) and the Treatment Autoimmune Bullous Disease Quality of Life (TABQOL) questionnaires. It is hoped that a combination of these outcome measures will be more widely utilized in clinical trials and routine practice, shifting the focus of AIBD care from clinical endpoints to patient-centered outcomes.