How to measure my psoriasis

[pingu]

This might be a stupid question but I see threads where people say they had psoriasis over 70% 80% or 90% of their body.

Now I probably have psoriasis over arms, legs, back, bottom, face, scalp and a little on my torso. 

So that equates to about 60% of my body but as a total of my skin surface area its only a small amount as its lots of patches and I have a lot of skin.

My consultant said that I rated about 3 out of 10 on a "how bad is my psoriasis scale" which is ok, well I don't want to be a 10 out of 10.

So how do I measure my psoriasis. I have seen the scoring methods but then I have to decide whats good bad or indifferent and it varies every few days on how itchy, angry or generally pee'd off I get.

[Fred]

OK this is the reason I made the Psoriasis Score (You can find it in the menu above) I made it because I just couldn't get my head around the PASI score which is what your dermatologist will use. If you want to try and understand it you can read these threads.

Psoriasis Score

What is the PASI score my dermatologist uses ?

At the end of the day your dermatologist will use the PASI, but I prefer to use the one I made Psoriasis Score as it helped me undrstand it better and I felt gave a better gauge of how things are going.

It's your choice as to what you use but your dermatologist will always use the PASI

[Turnedlight]

Interesting as my derm has never mentioned it! Do you think he does the score but just doesn't tell me?

[jiml]

Interesting as my derm has never mentioned it! Do you think he does the score but just doesn't tell me?

My dermatologist has never mentioned a PASI score to me either I guess they must do one to put in our records

[Fred]

Interesting as my derm has never mentioned it! Do you think he does the score but just doesn't tell me?

A good dermatologist will and probably should do it especially on your first consultations, they should also do the Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI) it gives thme a good idea of how things are going.

The PASI and DLQI are used around the world and are used in all studies of psoriasis, so yes in my opinion they should be doing them.

Oh and as for if he does it but not tell you: I doubt it as it's done on paper as they look you over and ask you questions, maybe you should ask him about both of them.

[pingu]

I will certainly ask.

One of the things about living with psoriasis is that you know when its good and bad but never can really tell if something is improving. I feel that MTX has made an improvement that without applying creams it would be rampant now. However how much it has eased someone who doesn't see it everyday is a better judge.