Analysis of clinical features of rosacea and rediscussion of a Chinese diagnostic criterion for rosacea / 中华皮肤科杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To propose a Chinese diagnostic criterion for rosacea on the basis of clinical feature analysis of rosacea, and to assess its sensitivity and specificity.Methods:A total of 3 350 Chinese patients with newly diagnosed rosacea were collected from Department of Dermatology, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University between December 2017 and July 2018, their phenotypes and clinical features were retrospectively analyzed, and a Chinese modified diagnostic criterion for rosacea was put forward. A national multi-center clinical observational trial, which included 2 269 patients with rosacea and 2 408 patients with other facial skin diseases from 28 centers, was conducted to verify this diagnostic criterion. Then, the sensitivity and specificity of the modified diagnostic criterion were evaluated by comparing with the 2017 standard classification of rosacea developed by the National Rosacea Society Expert Committee (NRSEC) .Results:Fixed centrofacial erythema occurred in 3 350 (100%) patients with rosacea. Flushing occurred before or simultaneously with fixed erythema in 1 850 (99.4%) of the 1 861 patients with erythema on the cheeks; among the 1 489 patients with erythema on the nose or perioral area, only 52 (3.5%) had flushing; all the 342 patients presenting with phymatous changes had fixed erythema before phymatous changes. Based on the above clinical findings, it was proposed that patients with periodically aggravated fixed erythema on the cheeks accompanied with flushing could be diagnosed with rosacea; patients with fixed erythema on the nose and perioral area accompanied with at least one of selective phenotypes (flushing, telangiectasia, papules and pustules, phymatous changes, or ocular manifestations) could be diagnosed with rosacea. The national multi-center clinical observational trial revealed that the sensitivity of the Chinese modified diagnostic criterion for rosacea was 99.6%, which was close to the sensitivity (100%) of the NRSEC standard, and its specificity was 91.9%, higher than the specificity (73.3%) of the NRSEC standard.Conclusion:The Chinese modified diagnostic criterion for rosacea has good sensitivity and specificity, and can facilitate the early diagnosis of phymatous rosacea.