VASI (Vitiligo Area Scoring Index)

The Vitiligo Area Scoring Index (VASI; Hamzavi and colleagues 2004).

Open the calculator → Runs in your browser. Data leaves only if you deliberately send a problem report from the interactive tool.

Example

Trunk: involved area in HAND UNITS
20 hand units
Trunk: residual depigmentation
The depigmented and pigmented areas are equal
Hands: involved area in HAND UNITS
2 hand units
Hands: residual depigmentation
No pigment is present

Result: Total-body VASI 12 of 100.

The tool opens with these values already filled in. Replace them with your own.

What the result means

Hand unit
The PATIENT'S OWN palm including fingers = 1% of their body surface area. Patient-relative, not absolute.
Depigmentation
An ORDINAL LADDER: only 0, 10, 25, 50, 75, 90, 100. Chosen by description, never a free percentage.
Regions
Six mutually exclusive: upper extremities EXCLUDE hands, lower EXCLUDE feet. The original used five.
Direction
Higher is worse. The score falls as repigmentation occurs; trials use percent change.
Scope
Extent and severity only. Not disease activity, not a diagnosis, not phototherapy dosing.

What you enter

  • Head and neck: involved area in HAND UNITS, where one unit is the patient's own palm including fingers and equals 1 percent of body surface area.
  • Head and neck: residual depigmentation.
  • Hands: involved area in HAND UNITS, where one unit is the patient's own palm including fingers and equals 1 percent of body surface area.
  • Hands: residual depigmentation.
  • Upper extremities, EXCLUDING the hands: involved area in HAND UNITS, where one unit is the patient's own palm including fingers and equals 1 percent of body surface area.
  • Upper extremities, EXCLUDING the hands: residual depigmentation.
  • Trunk: involved area in HAND UNITS, where one unit is the patient's own palm including fingers and equals 1 percent of body surface area.
  • Trunk: residual depigmentation.
The other 4 fields
  • Head and neck: involved area in HAND UNITS, where one unit is the patient's own palm including fingers and equals 1 percent of body surface area. Leave blank or 0 if not involved.
  • Head and neck: residual depigmentation. An ORDINAL LADDER chosen by description, not a free percentage [0 = No depigmentation; 10 = Only specks of depigmentation are present; 25 = The pigmented area exceeds the depigmented area; 50 = The depigmented and pigmented areas are equal; 75 = The depigmented area exceeds the pigmented area; 90 = Specks of pigment are present; 100 = No pigment is present]
  • Hands: involved area in HAND UNITS, where one unit is the patient's own palm including fingers and equals 1 percent of body surface area. Leave blank or 0 if not involved.
  • Hands: residual depigmentation. An ORDINAL LADDER chosen by description, not a free percentage [0 = No depigmentation; 10 = Only specks of depigmentation are present; 25 = The pigmented area exceeds the depigmented area; 50 = The depigmented and pigmented areas are equal; 75 = The depigmented area exceeds the pigmented area; 90 = Specks of pigment are present; 100 = No pigment is present]
  • Upper extremities, EXCLUDING the hands: involved area in HAND UNITS, where one unit is the patient's own palm including fingers and equals 1 percent of body surface area. Leave blank or 0 if not involved.
  • Upper extremities, EXCLUDING the hands: residual depigmentation. An ORDINAL LADDER chosen by description, not a free percentage [0 = No depigmentation; 10 = Only specks of depigmentation are present; 25 = The pigmented area exceeds the depigmented area; 50 = The depigmented and pigmented areas are equal; 75 = The depigmented area exceeds the pigmented area; 90 = Specks of pigment are present; 100 = No pigment is present]
  • Trunk: involved area in HAND UNITS, where one unit is the patient's own palm including fingers and equals 1 percent of body surface area. Leave blank or 0 if not involved.
  • Trunk: residual depigmentation. An ORDINAL LADDER chosen by description, not a free percentage [0 = No depigmentation; 10 = Only specks of depigmentation are present; 25 = The pigmented area exceeds the depigmented area; 50 = The depigmented and pigmented areas are equal; 75 = The depigmented area exceeds the pigmented area; 90 = Specks of pigment are present; 100 = No pigment is present]
  • Lower extremities, EXCLUDING the feet: involved area in HAND UNITS, where one unit is the patient's own palm including fingers and equals 1 percent of body surface area. Leave blank or 0 if not involved.
  • Lower extremities, EXCLUDING the feet: residual depigmentation. An ORDINAL LADDER chosen by description, not a free percentage [0 = No depigmentation; 10 = Only specks of depigmentation are present; 25 = The pigmented area exceeds the depigmented area; 50 = The depigmented and pigmented areas are equal; 75 = The depigmented area exceeds the pigmented area; 90 = Specks of pigment are present; 100 = No pigment is present]
  • Feet: involved area in HAND UNITS, where one unit is the patient's own palm including fingers and equals 1 percent of body surface area. Leave blank or 0 if not involved.
  • Feet: residual depigmentation. An ORDINAL LADDER chosen by description, not a free percentage [0 = No depigmentation; 10 = Only specks of depigmentation are present; 25 = The pigmented area exceeds the depigmented area; 50 = The depigmented and pigmented areas are equal; 75 = The depigmented area exceeds the pigmented area; 90 = Specks of pigment are present; 100 = No pigment is present]
How this is calculated
Formula
Sum over regions of (hand units of involvement) x (residual depigmentation).
Range
Total-body 0 to 100. Facial VASI is 0 to 3 and is a DIFFERENT scale; never share a band table.

Hamzavi I, Jain H, McLean D, Shapiro J, Zeng H, Lui H. Parametric modeling of narrowband UV-B phototherapy for vitiligo using a novel quantitative tool: the Vitiligo Area Scoring Index. Arch Dermatol. 2004;140(6):677-683. Read the source ↗

A reference and educational tool. Not medical, legal, or financial advice, and not a substitute for clinician judgment.

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Built by Clay Good. Source on GitHub.