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Differential diagnosis of eczema and psoriasis using routine clinical data and machine learning: development of a
Ning Ding1, Yinhao Li2, Zheng Zhao2
1Department of Dermatology, Shengjing Hospital, China Medical University, Shenyang, China.
Background:
Eczema and psoriasis are common chronic dermatoses with overlapping features, making early differential diagnosis difficult. While biopsy is the gold standard, its invasiveness and dependence on clinician expertise restrict routine application, especially in primary care. To overcome these limitations, we developed a machine learning-based diagnostic tool using routine laboratory data, enabling non-invasive, accurate, and practical differentiation between eczema and psoriasis in outpatient settings.
Methods:
We retrospectively analyzed clinical and routine laboratory data from 57,518 patients with eczema and psoriasis across three medical centers. Patients with confirmed diagnoses and complete laboratory records were included, while those with missing key data were excluded. Eight machine learning models were trained using data from Shengjing Hospital. Model performance was evaluated using accuracy, AUC, sensitivity, specificity, PPV, NPV, F1 score, and confusion matrix. The best-performing model, XGBoost, was externally validated on independent cohorts from two other hospitals. SHapley Additive exPlanation (SHAP) were applied to assess feature importance. Finally, a web-based tool was developed integrating the optimal model with optical character recognition (OCR) for automatic data input.
Results:
XGBoost demonstrated the best performance, with AUCs of 0.891, 0.830, and 0.812 for the training, internal test, and external test sets, respectively. Key predictive features included dNLR, neutrophil count, SIRI, RDW, and eosinophil count, which were consistent with known clinical patterns. The final model was deployed as an interactive web tool, allowing manual or OCR-based data input to provide real-time prediction probabilities.
Conclusion:
This machine learning-based diagnostic tool showed strong performance and interpretability in differentiating eczema from psoriasis using routine laboratory data. The user-friendly web interface enables rapid, non-invasive decision support in outpatient clinical settings.
