A preliminary study on the evaluation of photodynamic diagnosis for acne inflammatory skin lesions

Abstract

AbstractObjectiveThis study aimed to observe the fluorescence characteristics of acne inflammatory skin lesions in 5‐aminolevulinic acid‐based photodynamic diagnosis (ALA‐PDD), and discuss the viability of using ALA‐PDD to evaluate acne inflammatory skin lesions and explore the advantages of predicting subclinical skin lesions.MethodsThe OBSERV facial skin detector collected photographs of 20 patients before and after optical intra‐tissue fiber irradiation photodynamic therapy (OFI‐ALA‐PDT) in both ALA‐PDD and white light patterns. The patients were treated once a week for four consecutive weeks in order to analyze the correlation between the two patterns in recognizing inflammatory skin lesions.ResultsBefore and after treatment, there was no significant difference between the two patterns for recognizing acne inflammatory skin lesions (p > 0.05). Both patterns demonstrated a strong correlation (r > 0.90) for the recognition of various types of inflammatory skin lesions at different treatment stages.ConclusionALA‐PDD is a feasible method for evaluating acne inflammatory lesions, guiding treatment and judging efficacy. It has advantages in predicting subclinical skin lesions and deserves further study.