Initial program: idiopathic acanthosis nigricans

For patients and clinicians

Contact Dr. Keith Choate

If you have generalized idiopathic acanthosis nigricans—or treat a patient who does—contact Dr. Keith Choate, Chair of Dermatology and Professor of Genetics and Pathology at Yale School of Medicine.

Dr. Choate is a physician-scientist focused on the genetics of rare skin disease and senior author of the 2026 JAMA Dermatology report on de novo germline EGFR variants and generalized acanthosis nigricans.

Call Dr. Choate's office: +1 203-785-4092

Initial program: idiopathic acanthosis nigricans

Share published research

Surface published work on rare skin conditions with an identifiable genetic cause — a category that may include your presentation, not a finding about it.

Ask your Care Provider

Turn that into a specific question for your Care Provider. CIMOS does not enroll anyone in research, screen for eligibility, or contact researchers for you.

Record treatments

Keep a treatment history for discussion with a doctor.

Record changes over time

Record changes over time for discussion with a doctor.

Case-history organization preview

Preliminary CIMOS analysis structure: the plan for turning medical records, procedural history, treatment notes, and longitudinal before-and-after treatment images into a physician-reviewable summary. CIMOS cannot take in records or images yet, so the summary an approved Care Provider can read and print today is built from what the member enters in the app.
Analysis area	What this area covers	Current status
Diagnostic exclusion pathway	Prior diagnostics used to support apparent idiopathic acanthosis nigricans and rule out typical causes such as obesity, diabetes, malignancy, medication effect, or other systemic drivers.	Published case; repeated clinical evaluation; biopsy-supported AN diagnosis; physician-friendly summary in development.
Treatments tried and stopped	Topical, injectable, oral, systemic, laser, and procedural treatments that have been attempted, stopped, modified, or failed, including reasons for discontinuation and recurrence after response.	Prior topical failures, systemic and biologic trials, isotretinoin history, laser procedures, chemical peels, and pain-limited procedural care to be organized into a structured treatment history.
Current and future treatment strategy	Active treatment trials, pain-management protocols, longitudinal image tracking, and physician-reviewed candidate treatments not yet attempted.	Current focus includes laser, TCA, phenol, dry ice, BLT, oral pain medications, lidocaine/tetracaine pain control, treatment images, and candidate therapies requiring physician review.

Read the published clinical case

Published as: Poetzscher IK, Klebanov N, Das S. Widespread skin-thickening and hyperpigmentation. Cleveland Clinic Journal of Medicine. 2022;89(9):485–487.

CIMOS was not involved in this case and did not contribute to it. It was written and published independently by its authors. CIMOS’s founder is the patient described in it, not an author.