CDASI-A

Score range

• CDASI-A (activity) ranges 0–100. Higher = more active inflammatory skin disease.
• CDASI-D (damage) is scored separately and ranges 0–32.

What counts as mild vs moderate–severe

There isn’t one universally enforced cutoff (different cohorts used slightly different “gold standards”), but the most commonly used threshold in modern DM work is:

• CDASI-A ≤ 14 = mild
• CDASI-A > 14 = moderate–severe

Many interventional studies operationalize “moderate–severe” as CDASI-A ≥ 15 (functionally the same threshold).

What change is clinically meaningful

You’ll see two kinds of “meaningful change” definitions:

A) Absolute point change (easy at the bedside)

• ~5–6 point improvement is often treated as the minimal clinically important difference (MCID) in trial contexts.
• In patients with baseline CDASI-A 15–26, a 6–7 point decrease correlated with a meaningful quality-of-life improvement (Skindex domains).
• For worsening/flare, an increase of ~8 points has been proposed as clinically significant and QoL-relevant.

B) Percent change (useful when baseline severity varies)

• In patients starting with CDASI-A > 14, about a 40% improvement can be used as an indicator of meaningful QoL change.

A quick “translation” you can use

• Baseline 25 → 18 (−7): typically meaningful improvement.
• Baseline 20 → 12 (−8; also crosses ≤14): improvement + moves into “mild” range.
• Baseline 10 → 6 (−4): may be noticeable, but might be below typical MCID thresholds depending on context.