An easy method to evaluate the therapeutic effects of laser therapy on port-wine stains based on DC images

Objective: To investigate the treatment effects on port-wine stains (PWSs) using the red, green, and blue (RGB) color measuring and analyzing system in combination with a personal computer. Methods: Twenty patients with PWSs were evaluated both by the RGB color measuring and analyzing system and by the experienced plastic surgeons through a blind test. Then, the two treatment effects were compared. Results: The mean treatment effect was 51.6 ± 24% by RGB method, ranging from 2% to 98%, and that of the clinician evaluation was 47.13 ± 24.6%, ranging from 15% to 90%. There was no significant difference in treatment effects as evaluated by both the clinicians and the RGB measuring and analyzing system method on average (P > 0.05). The subjective clinical grades correlated well with the treatment effects obtained by the proposed computer-assisted RGB measuring and analyzing system (correlation coefficient, 0.87). Conclusions: RGB color measure and analysis system could replace clinician for the evaluation of treatment effects on PWSs and it is an easy, objective, quantitative, and cost-effective method, and can be useful for the evaluation of treatment effects on PWSs.