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Background: Rosacea is a common chronic inflammatory facial skin disorder. Standardized evaluation of the severity and extent of rosacea is important for baseline assessment and treatment effect. The currently used Investigator's Global Assessment (IGA) is unspecific and fails to consider subtypes/phenotypes of rosacea and area involvement. The Rosacea Area and Severity Index (RASI) was developed to give a more nuanced evaluation of rosacea features in four facial skin areas adjusted to the relative importance of each area of the face to obtain an overall severity score., Objectives: To validate RASI against the IGA and to assess the inter- and intraobserver reliability for RASI., Methods: Sixteen dermatologists evaluated photographs of 60 adult patients with rosacea (3 photographs per patient, one from the front and one from each side). IGA and RASI scores were performed for interobserver reliability assessment. To determine intraobserver reliability, 14 dermatologists evaluated 10 other patients twice with at least 1 week interval., Results: The IGA and RASI correlated well (Spearman correlation coefficient (SCC) = 0.75, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.72-0.78). Interobserver reliability was moderate for RASI and poor to moderate for IGA. Reliability was strongest for rhinophyma, followed by papules/pustules and erythema, and rather weak for telangiectasia. For area scores, interobserver reliability was strongest for cheeks, followed by nose, chin and forehead. We found a moderate-to-strong intraobserver agreement both for IGA and RASI., Conclusions: We have designed a new practical tool to examine clinical severity of rosacea. RASI proved simple and reliable in scoring clinical severity of rosacea with an agreement comparable to the currently used IGA although RASI will provide a more nuanced view of the current rosacea extent and severity. We suggest that RASI is used in the daily clinical setting as well as in clinical studies assessing the efficacy of rosacea therapies., (© 2022 The Authors. Journal of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology.)

Introduction: Malnutrition and disturbed sense of smell and taste frequently occur in patients treated with chronic haemodialysis. The common denominator between chemosensation and nutrition may be food preferences. Our aim was to investigate smell and taste function as well as food preferences among haemodialysis patients and compare the results with those of age-matched controls., Methods: An observational case-control study was conducted on 29 patients on chronic haemodialysis and 39 age-matched healthy controls. Chemosensory function was evaluated using validated gustatory and olfactory tests. Food preferences were recorded using a questionnaire of 63 items including a five-point Likert scale of familiarity, liking and frequency., Results: Chemosensory function was significantly poorer among patients than among controls. Patients had significantly lower familiarity and frequency of consumptions of all food categories than controls and they also had significantly lower liking of vegetables, fruits and starches., Conclusions: Implementation of the provided knowledge about haemodialysis patients' smell and taste function including their food preferences are suggested, such as enhancement of odorant intensity, use of taste amplification, cooking habits and exposure to more varied food items. Assessments of food preferences and chemosensory function prior to determination of individual dietary schedules are therefore recommended., Funding: The authors did not receive any financial support for the research or drafting of this article. The authors declare that they have no financial interests to report., Trial Registration: Danish Ethical Committee project number: M-2018-188-18., (Articles published in the DMJ are “open access”. This means that the articles are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial License, which permits any non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited.)

Introduction: Consensus about which questionnaire to use is necessary when it comes to evaluation of tinnitus. In Denmark, the Tinnitus Handicap Index is currently used. However, for evaluating treatment-related outcomes, the Tinnitus Functional Index (TFI) has been optimised for this and is being used in several countries. In this study, we aimed to provide validation of a professionally translated Danish version of the TFI to safely implement this questionnaire in clinical and scientific settings., Methods: At the Department of Audiology at Hospital West Jutland, Denmark, 133 adult patients suffering from tinnitus with or without hearing loss completed the Danish version of the TFI questionnaire (TFI-Da). Internal consistency was evaluated by Cronbach's alpha and test-retest reliability with Pearson's correlation., Results: Internal consistency was calculated for the total TFI score producing an excellent Crohnbach's alpha of 0.96. Crohnbach's alpha scores were also acceptable for all subgroups with values > 0.7. The test-retest reliability in terms of Pearson's correlation coefficient was 0.848 for the total TFI scores and was acceptable for all subgroups., Conclusion: Our study showed a very high internal consistency and test-retest reliability when using the Danish version of the TFI questionnaire. Therefore, we recommend TFI-Da as the standard questionnaire for tinnitus patients in Denmark, especially for evaluation of treatment impact., Funding: none., Trial Registration: not relevant., (Articles published in the DMJ are “open access”. This means that the articles are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial License, which permits any non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited.)

Objective: Easily available clinical tests to evaluate postural control are needed. Furthermore, motion sickness (MS) and postural control are correlated. The aims of this study were to compare the internal validity of a set of clinical tests of postural control with the internal validity of static posturography and to evaluate possible associations between postural control and MS., Methods: We included healthy subjects from a primary school in Denmark who completed questionnaires about MS and underwent two rounds of clinical tests of postural control and static posturography using a Tetrax Interactive Balance System two weeks apart. For clinical tests of postural control, subjects were observed for up to 30 s standing on both legs, on one leg, on a pillow both with their eyes open and again with their eyes closed., Results: Twenty-one subjects were included: 71% males with an average age of 13.7 years. Agreement rates ranged from 62% to 95% between test and retest in clinical tests.; lowest for subjects standing on their non dominant leg with their eyes open and highest for subjects performing Romberg's test with their eyes closed along with subjects standing on a pillow with their eyes open. For several of these tests, almost all subjects were able to hold their balance for the full 30 s. Test-retesting using static posturography by Bland Altman plot showed datapoints scattered equally above and below the mean line indicating no systematic bias. Results of clinical tests and static posturography were not associated. MS was reported from 43% of subjects and a trend was observed with high sway scores from subjects suffering from MS. This was statistically insignificant., Conclusions: Due to a ceiling effect, subjects achieved the same scores in both rounds of testing in several of the clinical tests, reducing the clinical importance of these tests. Compared to clinical tests, static posturography seemingly remains the superior method when it comes to evaluation of postural control, although not as easily applicable in a daily clinical setting. When comparing MS and postural control a trend was observed, indicating higher sway scores in subjects suffering from MS., (Copyright © 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)