Acne is commonly encountered in youngsters. People with dark skin are at increased risk for developing pigmentary complications. Inflammation along with other factors plays a key role in developing post-acne hyperpigmentation, however, very less is known about these factors. 

A study identified the risk factors involved in post-acne hyperpigmentation by compiling the clinical data related to acne and acne-related hyperpigmentation. The collected data was further analyzed.

The observations of the study were as follows-

• The majority of the enrolled subjects (339 patients) demonstrated dark skin phototypes (3 and 4).
• More than 80% of patients had Post- acne hyperpigmentation.
• Females, darker skin color, severe acne, facial sites, and excessive sunlight exposure, squeezing or scratching lesions were considered important risk factors for post-acne hyperpigmentation.
• The classifier confusion matrix demonstrated 83.8% accuracy in predicting the appearance of pigmentation, with 92.6% sensitivity and a 14.2% false-positive rate.

Thus it was concluded that Post-acne hyperpigmentation (PAH) is multifactorial of which several factors can be sufficiently modified by adequate patient education (lesion trauma, excessive sunlight exposure). 

Artificial Neural Network can be utilized for predicting the appearance of post-acne hyperpigmentation based on identified risk factors.

Source- Dermatol Reports. 2021 Oct 6;13(3):8223. doi: 10.4081/dr.2021.8223. PMID: 34880967; PMCID: PMC8611517.