Department of Dermatology, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
Skin Res Technol. 2013 Feb;19(1):e423-32. doi: 10.1111/j.1600-0846.2012.00660.x. Epub 2012 Aug 14.
BACKGROUND/PURPOSE: Existing acne grading methods, which depend on overall impression, require a long training period and there is a high degree of variability among raters, including trained dermatologists. The use of lesion count provides fair reproducibility but the method is time consuming. New technologies in photographic equipment and software allow solutions to the problem of acne evaluation. This study was conducted to develop the automatic acne lesion program and evaluation of its usefulness.
We made the conditions to optimize characterization of acne lesions and developed the counting program. Twenty-five volunteers with acne lesions were enrolled. Automated lesion counting for five subtypes of acne (papule, nodule, pustule, whitehead comedone, and blackhead comedone) was performed with image processing. The usefulness of the automatic lesion count program was assessed by a comparison with manual counting performed by an expert dermatologist.
In a comparison with manual counting performed by an expert dermatologist, the sensitivity and positive predictive value of the lesion-counting program was greater than 70% for papules, nodules, pustules, and whitehead comedo. In a comparison with manual counting, findings with the use of the lesion-counting program were well correlated for papules, nodules, pustules, and whitehead comedo (r > 0.9).
Automatic lesion-counting program can be a useful tool for acne severity evaluation.
背景/目的：现有的痤疮分级方法依赖于整体印象，需要长期的培训，而且评估者（包括训练有素的皮肤科医生）之间存在高度的可变性。基于皮损计数的方法具有良好的可重复性，但比较耗时。摄影设备和软件的新技术为痤疮评估问题提供了一些解决方案。本研究旨在开发自动痤疮皮损程序并评估其有用性。
我们优化了痤疮皮损的特征描述条件并开发了计数程序。共招募了 25 名有痤疮皮损的志愿者。使用图像处理对五种痤疮亚型（丘疹、结节、脓疱、白头粉刺和黑头粉刺）进行自动皮损计数。通过与专家皮肤科医生进行的手动计数进行比较，评估自动皮损计数程序的有用性。
与专家皮肤科医生进行的手动计数相比，对于丘疹、结节、脓疱和白头粉刺，皮损计数程序的敏感性和阳性预测值均大于 70%。与手动计数相比，使用皮损计数程序的结果与丘疹、结节、脓疱和白头粉刺具有很好的相关性（r > 0.9）。
自动皮损计数程序可以成为痤疮严重程度评估的有用工具。
