Table 1.

Histological assessment criteria ^a

Epidermal atrophy			Papillary dermis fibrosis
Normal	0	More than seven layers	Normal	0	Absence
Light	1	Six to seven layers	Light	1	Reduction in thickness of lax tissue
Moderate	2	Four to five layers	Moderate	2	Segmental hyalinization
Severe	3	Three layers or less	Severe	3	Complete hyalinization
Dermal and subcutaneous infiltration			Reticular dermis fibrosis
Normal	0	Absence	Normal	0	Absence
Light	1	Isolated lymphocytes	Light	1	Small pockets of hyalinization
Moderate	2	Small groups of lymphocytes	Moderate	2	Presence of moderate hyalinization
Severe	3	Large groups of lymphocytes	Severe	3	Total hyalinization
Adipose tissue fibrosis			Annex atrophy
Normal	0	Absence	Normal	0	Absence
Light	1	Light thickening of adipose septa	Light	1	Periadnexal fibrosis
Moderate	2	Moderate thickening of adipose septa	Moderate	2	Reduction in size of annexes
Severe	3	Severe thickening of adipose septa	Severe	3	Presence of adnexal vestiges

^aMicroscopic characteristics that were used as parameters to evaluate the effectiveness of pirfenidone on localized scleroderma lesions.