Effectiveness of VISIA system in evaluating the severity of rosacea

Background Rosacea is a facial chronic inflammatory skin disease with almost 5.5% prevalence. Although there are various scales of rosacea, they are objective and discordant among different dermatologists. Noninvasive objective measurements such as VISIA system might play essential roles in the diagnosis and evaluation of rosacea. Here, we intended to reveal the effectiveness of VISIA system in rosacea. Materials and methods A number of 563 participants diagnosed with facial rosacea were enrolled in study. They all received both full-face image-shoot by VISIA system with quantitative analysis software and physician's assessment via five different scales, including investigator global assessment (IGA), clinician erythema assessment (CEA), numerical score, the National Rosacea Society (NRS) grading system and telangiectasis. Results Absolute score and percentile of red area had significant correlations with IGA and CEA, whereas red area had no significant correlation with numerical score, NRS and telangiectasis. Red area in erythematotelangiectatic rosacea patients demonstrated the highest correlation with IGA and CEA, especially in those aged between 51 and 60. Besides red area, pigmentation parameters in VISIA system (brown spot) also showed significant correlation with IGA and CEA. Conclusion VISIA system might be an effective measurement in the assessment of rosacea severity.

Automated summary

This study aimed to explore the effectiveness of the VISIA system in rosacea assessment. The results showed that the absolute score and percentile of red area were significantly correlated with investigator global assessment (IGA) and clinician erythema assessment (CEA), but not with numerical score, National Rosacea Society (NRS) grading system, and telangiectasis. The red area in erythematotelangiectatic rosacea patients had the highest correlation with IGA and CEA, especially in those aged between 51 and 60. In addition to red area, pigmentation parameters (brown spot) in the VISIA system also showed significant correlation with IGA and CEA.