Nailfold capillaroscopy for day-to-day clinical use: construction of a simple scoring modality as a clinical prognostic index for digital trophic lesions.

Objective Construction of a simple nailfold videocapillaroscopic (NVC) scoring modality as a prognostic index for digital trophic lesions for day-to-day clinical use. Methods An association with a single simple (semi)- quantitatively scored NVC parameter, mean score of capillary loss, was explored in 71 consecutive patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc), and reliable reduction in the number of investigated fi elds (F32–F16–F8–F4). The cut-off value of the prognostic index (mean score of capillary loss calculated over a reduced number of fi elds) for present/future digital trophic lesions was selected by receiver operating curve (ROC) analysis. Results Reduction in the number of fi elds for mean score of capillary loss was reliable from F32 to F8 (intraclass correlation coeffi cient of F16/F32: 0.97; F8/ F32: 0.90). Based on ROC analysis, a prognostic index (mean score of capillary loss as calculated over F8) with a cut-off value of 1.67 is proposed. This value has a sensitivity of 72.22/70.00, specifi city of 70.59/69.77, positive likelihood ratio of 2.46/2.32 and a negative likelihood ratio of 0.39/0.43 for present/future digital trophic lesions. Conclusions A simple prognostic index for digital trophic lesions for daily use in SSc clinics is proposed, limited to the mean score of capillary loss as calculated over eight fi elds (8 fi ngers, 1 fi eld per fi nger).