Progress and prospect of non-invasive detection techniques in the therapeutic evaluation of melasma

作者：Xiao Meng, Chenchen Xu · 发表于：Chinese Medical Journal · 年份：2020 · DOI：10.1097/cm9.0000000000000984 · 被引用次数：5 · 研究领域：Dermatologic Treatments and Research、melanin and skin pigmentation、Skin Protection and Aging

Melasma is a common, chronic, acquired, and refractory hyperpigmentation, the etiopathogenesis of which is multifactorial.[1,2] Current treatments include topical or systemic agents, chemical peels, laser- and light-based therapies, and traditional Chinese medicine.[3] At present, the therapeutic evaluation of melasma can be mainly summarized into four categories: (1) Patient self-assessments[4]; (2) Scoring systems used by dermatologists[5]; (3) Non-invasive detection techniques[6,7]; (4) Histopathological and immunohistochemical assessments.[8] Providing a non-invasive, objective, and reproducible methodology to evaluate treatment efficacy in melasma has become the focus of many researchers. In the current review, the commonly used and the latest non-invasive detection techniques which have been applied in the therapeutic evaluation of melasma in recent years are discussed. Skin Color Measurement Techniques Based on different principles, measurement instruments can be classified into four types, namely, scanning reflectance spectrophotometers, tristimulus colorimeters, narrow-band reflectance spectrophotometers, and visible-spectrum reflectance colorimeters.[9] Among these, three kinds of instruments, including the Chromameter, Mexameter, and Dermacatch, have been widely applied in clinical efficacy evaluations. Some researchers simultaneously applied two kinds of instruments for more objective assessments of clinical outcome. For example, the Chromameter combined with the ...