Epistaxis grading in Osler's disease: comparison of comprehensive scores with detailed bleeding diaries

Background

Use of reliable grading scores to measure epistaxis severity in hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia (HHT) is essential in clinical routine and for scientific purposes. For practical reasons, visual analog scale (VAS) scoring and the Epistaxis Severity Score (ESS) are widely used. VAS scores are purely subjective, and a potential shortcoming of the ESS is that it is based on self-reported anamnestic bleeding data. The aim of this study was to validate the level of correlation between VAS scores, the ESS, and actual bleeding events, based on detailed epistaxis diaries of patients.

Methods

Records from daily epistaxis diaries maintained by 16 HHT patients over 112 consecutive days were compared with the monthly ESS and daily VAS scores in the corresponding time period. The Spearman rank correlation coefficient, analysis of variance models, and multiple R² measures were used for statistical analysis.

Results

Although the ESS and VAS scores generally showed a high degree of correlation with actual bleeding events, mild events were underrepresented in both scores.

Conclusions

Our results highlight the usefulness of the ESS as a standard epistaxis score in cohorts with moderate to severe degrees of epistaxis. The use of detailed epistaxis diaries should be considered when monitoring patients and cohorts with mild forms of HHT.

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