AI System for Dermatologists Efficiently Evaluates Psoriasis Severity in Patients; Study Says

A novel AI system developed by dermatologists from the University of Yamanashi, Japan, was demonstrated to accurately and efficiently evaluate the severity of psoriasis in patients.

Psoriasis Evaluating AI System

(Photo: Jenna Hamra by Pexels)

Takashi Okamoto and his colleagues developed a Simplified Psoriasis Area and Severity Index system. The AI model was demonstrated to assess the severity of psoriasis. Model development used 705 images of psoriasis in the patient's trunk front and back, adding ten images to validate the deep learning system.

Thirteen board-certified dermatologists and nine medical students were then asked to score the test sets without assistance from the AI and subsequently referred to the AI scores. Upon reevaluating the scores, the AI system showed a mean absolute difference in its scores, and standard deviations among the evaluators were reduced.

Results of the experiments were reported in the study published in the Journal of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology, titled "Artificial intelligence for the automated single-shot assessment of psoriasis severity."

The authors of the study wrote that the PASI system reduced the burden of scoring the severity of psoriasis for dermatologists. Even when the scores of the AI system were not directly used, by referencing them, the deviations between the evaluation of the system and experts were reduced, reports MedicalXpress.

Additionally, the Single-Shot PASI system and the AI application can become instant tools to evaluate the severity of psoriasis in patients objectively. Researchers are hopeful that the system developed will be used in clinical practice in the near future.

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Understanding Psoriasis

Currently, the most prevalent autoimmune disease in the US is psoriasis. Experts estimate that roughly eight million, roughly 2.2% of the population, in America are diagnosed with psoriasis. The National Psoriasis Foundation states that over 125 million people across the globe have psoriasis.

Psoriasis, according to MayoClinic, is a skin disease that causes itchy, scaly patches and rashes commonly on the knees, elbows, scalp, and trunk.

Psoriasis is a long-term disease that currently has no cure. It can be painful and interfere with the quality of life. The condition tends to go through cycles, flaring for some weeks or months, subsiding, and repeating. The common triggers in people are those with a genetic disposition to the autoimmune disease, including infections, burns, and some medications.

Common symptoms of psoriasis include patchy rashes that vary in how it appears. Some have spots of dandruff-like scales, while others have major eruptions in the body. The rashes vary in color, from purple with gray scales to black or red silver scales.

Not all psoriasis is the same. There are six types of psoriasis. Plaque psoriasis is the most common form, which causes dry, itchy, raised skin patches. These typically appear in the elbows, knees, scalp, and lower back. Nais psoriasis affects the fingernails and toenails. Guttate psoriasis typically affects young adults and children, often triggered by a bacterial infection. Inverse psoriasis mainly affects the skin folds in the buttocks, breasts, and groin. The least common forms are pustular and erythrodermic psoriasis.