Acne Analysis, Grading and Computational Assessment Methods: An Overview

Introduction: This paper presents a comprehensive review of acne grading and measurement. Acne is a chronic disorder of the pilosebaceous units, with excess sebum production, follicular epidermal hyperproliferation, inflammation
and Propionibacterium acnes activity. Most patients are affected with acne vulgaris, which is the prevalent type of acne. Acne vulgaris consists of comedones (whitehead and blackhead), papules, pustules, nodules and cysts.
Objectives: To review and identify the issues for acne
vulgaris grading and computational assessment methods.
To determine the future direction for addressing the identified issues.
Methods: There are two main methods of assessment for
acne severity grading, namely, lesion counting and comparison of patient with a photographic standard. For the computational assessment method, the emphasis is on
computational imaging techniques.