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Physician Global Assessment (PGA) of Psoriasis Severity

Purpose: To evaluate a patient with psoriasis using the Physician Global Assessment (PGA).

Description

The Physician Global Assessment (PGA) is a simple, "gestalt" assessment of clinical severity for a patient with psoriasis. Its main virtue is its simplicity. It can be used for monitoring the patient over time and for evaluating the response to therapy.


 

Alternative Name: Psoriasis Global Assessment

 

Parameters:

(1) plaque elevation

(2) scaling

(3) erythema

 

There are 7 levels for each parameter.

Level

Clinical Appearance

none

completely clear

minimal

almost completely clear

mild

slight

mild to moderate

intermediate

moderate

moderate

moderate to severe

marked

severe

very marked

 

where:

• Post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation is not graded.

 

One variation is to replace each measure by a 10 cm visual analogue scale (VAS). Another would be to add an extreme level.

 

Limitations:

• The method is subjective and can have a high inter- and intra-observer variability.

 


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Specialty

Objective

ICD-10