Diagnosing Allergic Contact Dermatitis Using Deep Learning: Single-Arm, Pragmatic Clinical Trial with an Observer...

Background: Allergic contact dermatitis is a common, pruritic, debilitating skin disease, affecting at least 20% of the population.Objective: To prospectively validate a computer vision algorithm across all Fitzpatrick skin types.Methods: Each participant was exposed to 10 allergens. The reference criterion was obtained 5 days after initial patch placement by a board-certified dermatologist. The algorithm processed photographs of the test site obtained on Day 5. Human performance in reading the photographs was also evaluated.Results: A total of 206 evaluable participants [mean age 39 years, 66% (136/206) female, and 47% with Fitzpatrick skin types IV-VI] completed testing. Forty-two percent (87/206) of participants experienced 1 or more allergic reaction resulting in a total of 132 allergic reactions. The model provided high discrimination (AUROC 0.86, 95% CI: 0.82-0.90) and specificity (93%, 95% CI: 92%-94%) but with lower sensitivity (58%, 95% CI: 49%-67%). Human performance interpreting the photographs ranged from providing similar performance to the algorithm to providing superior performance when combined across readers. There were no serious adverse events.Conclusions: The combination of a smartphone capture of patch testing sites with deep learning yielded high discrimination across a diverse sample.