Generalised linear mixed models with one, two and three descriptors
| Number of descriptors | Descriptors used (number of levels) | AIC | pR2 |
| 1 | Erosions and ulcers (4) | ||
| Mucosal erythema (5) | −607 | 0.57 | |
| Mucosal oedema (5) | −582 | 0.55 | |
| Vascular pattern (5) | −561 | 0.57 | |
| Incidental friability (5) | −495 | 0.49 | |
| Bleeding (5) | −437 | 0.44 | |
| 2 | Erosions and ulcers (4) + | ||
| Mucosal erythema (5), or | −923 | 0.75 | |
| Vascular pattern (5), or | −887 | 0.74 | |
| Incidental friability (5) | −866 | 0.69 | |
| 3 | Erosions and ulcers (4) + | ||
| Vascular pattern (5) + incidental friability (5), or | −1108 | 0.91 | |
| Incidental friability (5) + mucosal surface (5), or | −1045 | 0.90 | |
| Vascular pattern (5) + bleeding (5) | −1038 | 0.90 | |
| 3 (Simplified I)* | Erosions & Ulcers (4) + | ||
| Vascular pattern (5) + incidental friability (4) or | −1132 | 0.91 | |
| Vascular pattern (5) + bleeding (4) | −1042 | 0.90 | |
| 3 (Simplified II)† | Erosions & Ulcers (4) + vascular pattern (3) + bleeding (4) | −999 | 0.90 |
pR2, the squared correlation between the logit-transformed overall severity evaluations on VAS and linear function of predictors from the model.
↵* Incidental friability and bleeding descriptors simplified to four levels (levels 4 and 5 combined).
↵† Vascular pattern simplified to three levels (levels 1, 2 and 3 combined), with incidental friability and bleeding as in*.
AIC, Akaike Information Criterion.