Neural network and statistical analysis showed that the blotch detection method was somewhat more effective using relative color than using absolute color. The relative-color blotch detection method gave a diagnostic accuracy of about 77%.
Dermoscopy, also known as dermatoscopy or epiluminescence microscopy (ELM), permits visualization of features of pigmented melanocytic neoplasms that are not discernable by examination with the naked eye. White areas, prominent in early malignant melanoma and melanoma in situ, contribute to early detection of these lesions.
An adaptive detection method has been investigated to identify white and hypopigmented areas based on lesion histogram statistics. Using the Euclidean distance transform, the lesion is segmented in concentric deciles. Overlays of the white areas on the lesion deciles are determined. Calculated features of automatically detected white areas include lesion decile ratios, normalized number of white areas, absolute and relative size of largest white area, relative size of all white areas, and white area eccentricity, dispersion, and irregularity.
Using a back-propagation neural network, the white area statistics yield over 95% diagnostic accuracy of melanomas from benign nevi. White and hypopigmented areas in melanomas tend to be central or paracentral. The four most powerful features on multivariate analysis are lesion decile ratios.
Automatic detection of white and hypopigmented areas in melanoma can be accomplished using lesion statistics. A neural network can achieve good discrimination of melanomas from benign nevi using these areas. Lesion decile ratios are useful white area features.
Background-Semitranslucency, defined as a smooth, jelly-like area with varied, near-skin-tone color, can indicate a diagnosis of basal cell carcinoma (BCC) with high specificity. This study sought to analyze potential areas of semitranslucency with histogram-derived texture and color measures to discriminate BCC from non-semitranslucent areas in non-BCC skin lesions.Methods-For 210 dermoscopy images, the areas of semitranslucency in 42 BCCs and comparable areas of smoothness and color in 168 non-BCCs were selected manually. Six color measures and six texture measures were applied to the semitranslucent areas of the BCC and the comparable areas in the non-BCC images.Results-Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis showed that the texture measures alone provided greater separation of BCC from non-BCC than the color measures alone. Statistical analysis showed that the four most important measures of semitranslucency are three histogram measures: contrast, smoothness, and entropy, and one color measure: blue chromaticity. Smoothness is the single most important measure. The combined 12 measures achieved a diagnostic accuracy of 95.05% based on area under the ROC curve.Conclusion-Texture and color analysis measures, especially smoothness, may afford automatic detection of basal cell carcinoma images with semitranslucency.
Clinicians often receive pathology reports proclaiming a spongiotic dermatitis with little in the form of a cogent differential diagnosis. In some cases, this is a natural consequence of the nonspecific nature of the reaction pattern due to matters of sampling error and/or lesional evolution. Further, some conditions are so synonymous in their histologic presentation that to choose one without mention of the other, purely on a histologic basis, may serve to inadvertently mislead the clinician. Despite the often significant histologic overlap amongst the varying spongiotic dermatitides, there are many subtle, yet detectable, features that may serve as clues to the pathogenetic process. Identification and subsequent communication of these features help to narrow the diagnostic possibilities with the ultimate goal of contributing to effective patient management. This article focuses on the histologic details of the spongiotic reaction pattern and presents some of the more common variations of its manifestation which, in conjunction with ancillary inflammatory elements, may help the histomorphologist to arrive at a more concise list of diagnostic possibilities.
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