We were interested to read the series of articles on the efficacy of intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) for the treatment of toxic epidermal necrolysis (TEN), published in the January issue of ARCHIVES. Most reports of trials of therapy in TEN are case series with no control group and so are difficult to interpret. The articles by Trent et al¹ and Bachot et al² address this by comparing actual mortality of IVIG-treated patients with mortality predicted by the SCORTEN prognostic scoring index.³

SCORTEN was developed using a sample of 165 patients and logistic regression analysis to identify independent risk factors for mortality. Seven factors were identified and given equal weighting in the score. Probability of death is calculated from the score. Probability of death = e^logit /1 + e^logit, where logit = −4.445 + 1.237 (TEN score). The SCORTEN was validated on a sample of 75 patients using measures of calibration and discrimination and was found to show good agreement.