Skin changes associated with Scleroderma are routinely assessed by pinching the skin at multiple sites (fingers, hands, arms, trunk and lower limbs) and grading elasticity on a simple 0 to 3 scale at each site, totalled to give a ‘Rodnan’ Skin Score’. This assessment is cheap and easy but has significant variance due to its subjective nature and limited grading scale.
The team is working to develop simple and cost-effective tools to improve clinical monitoring and offer the potential of self-monitoring strategies to replace the pinch test with an easy, low-cost test for an objective Rodnan assessment.
Related research groups
Fundamental Care and Safety