Multispectral and autofluorescence RGB imaging for skin cancer diagnostics

This paper presents the results of statistical clinical data, combining two diagnostic methods. A combination of two skin imaging methods – diffuse reflectance and autofluorescence – has been applied for skin cancer diagnostics. Autofluorescence (AF) and multispectral diffuse reflectance images were acquired by custom made prototype with 405 nm, 526 nm, 663 nm and 964 nm LEDs and RGB CMOS camera. Parameter p’ was calculated from diffuse reflectance images under green, red and infrared illumination, AF intensity (I’) was calculated from AF images exited at 405nm wavelength. Obtained results show that criterion p` > 1 gives possibility to discriminate melanomas and different kind of keratosis…

A multispectral imaging approach for diagnostics of skin pathologies

Noninvasive multispectral imaging method was applied for different skin pathology such as nevus, basal cell carcinoma, and melanoma diagnostics. Developed melanoma diagnostic parameter, using three spectral bands (540 nm, 650 nm and 950 nm), was calculated for nevus, melanoma and basal cell carcinoma. Simple multispectral diagnostic device was established and applied for skin assessment. Development and application of multispectral diagnostics method described further in this article.

Application of principal component analysis to multispectral imaging data for evaluation of pigmented skin lesions

Non-invasive and fast primary diagnostics of pigmented skin lesions is required due to frequent incidence of skin cancer – melanoma. Diagnostic potential of principal component analysis (PCA) for distant skin melanoma recognition is discussed. Processing of the measured clinical multi-spectral images (31 melanomas and 94 nonmalignant pigmented lesions) in the wavelength range of 450-950 nm by means of PCA resulted in 87 % sensitivity and 78 % specificity for separation between malignant melanomas and pigmented nevi.

Monitoring soft tissue coagulation by optical spectroscopy

Laser tissue welding (LTW) or laser tissue soldering (LTS) is investigated since many years for treatment of incisions, wound closure and anastomosis of vessels [1, 2]. Depending on the process, a certain temperature in the range between 65 °C to 85 °C must be reached and held for a few seconds. Care has to be taken not to overheat the tissue, otherwise necrosis or tissue carbonization may occur and will impair wound healing. Usually the temperature is monitored during the process to control the laser power [3]. This requires either bulky equipment or expensive and fragile infrared fibers to feed the temperature signal to an infrared detector. Alternatively, changes in tissue morphology can…

Combined multi-wavelength laser speckle contrast imaging and diffuse reflectance imaging for skin perfusion assessment

Abstract Laser Speckle Contrast Imaging (LSCI) is a powerful low-cost method for visualization of flow, microcirculation and blood perfusion. Due to the fact that diseased and healthy tissues has different blood perfusion, LSCI can be a perspective tool for cancer diagnostics and discrimination between different types of tissues. Previously, multispectral diffuse reflectance imaging method for melanoma diagnostics has been introduced. In this work, multi-wavelength (532-, 655- and 850- nm) LSCI technique combined with hyperspectral camera and diffuse reflectance imaging method will be used for assessment of tissues with different skin perfusion properties. An in vivo experiment with occlusi…

Challenges of automatic processing of large amount of skin lesion multispectral data

This work will describe the challenges involved in setting up automatic processing for a large differentiated data set. In this study, a multispectral (skin diffuse reflection images using 526nm (green), 663nm (red), and 964nm (infrared) illumination and autofluorescence (AF) image using 405 nm excitation) data set with 756 lesions (3024 images) was processed. Previously, using MATLAB software, finding markers, correctly segmenting images with dark edges and image alignment were the main causes of the problems in automatic data processing. To improve automatic processing and eliminate the use of licensed software, the latter was substituted with the open source Python environment. For more …

Skin cancer screening – better safe than sorry

Skin cancer is the most common type of cancers. In Latvia, on average there are approximately 200 new melanoma and 1300 non-melanoma cancer cases per year. Non-melanoma cancers are: Basal Cell Carcinoma, Squamous Cell Carcinoma and others. It is essential to discover skin cancer at an early stage when it is treatable. For this reason, a reliable, non-invasive and quantitative skin cancer screening method is necessary in order to discover skin cancer as early as possible and to help physicians such as general practitioners and dermatologists assign patients to the best treatment as soon as possible. In this article, the current skin cancer incidence as well as the screening situation in Latv…

Identification of the most informative wavelengths for non-invasive melanoma diagnostics in spectral region from 450 to 950 nm

In this study 300 skin lesion (including 32 skin melanomas) multispectral data cubes were analyzed. The multi-step and single step machine learning approaches were analyzed to find the wavebands that provide the most information that helps discriminate skin melanoma from other benign pigmented lesions. The multi-step machine learning approach assumed training several models but proved itself to be ineffective. The reason for that is a necessity to train a segmentation model on a very small dataset and utilization of standard machine learning classifier which have shown poor classification performance. The single-step approach is based on a deep learning neural network. We have conducted 260…

Quality enhancement of multispectral images for skin cancer optical diagnostics

Melanoma is the least common but deadliest skin cancer, accounting for only about 1% of all cases, but is the cause of the vast majority of skin cancer death. In some parts of the world, especially among western countries, melanoma is becoming more common every year. The detection of melanoma in early stage can be helpful to cure it. Unfortunately, long ques and high prices for dermatology service can result in the skin cancer diagnosis at its later stage, thus increasing the risk of mortality for the patient. It is important to provide a non-invasive optical device for primary care physicians to help diagnose different skin malformation based on obtained optical images. Such device will be…

Optical design improvement for noncontact skin cancer diagnostic device

Multispectral diffuse reflectance imaging and autofluorescence photo-bleaching imaging are methods that have been investigated for use in skin disorder diagnostics. In response to the ever-increasing incidence of skin cancer in light skinned populations a new device has been designed incorporating both of these methods. The aim of the study was to create a device that is most efficient in terms of hardware and software parameters for the screening of malignant and benign skin lesions. A set of 525 nm, 630 nm and 980 nm LEDs were used to illuminate the skin area at three wavelengths [1] and a set of 405 nm LEDs were used to induce the skin autofluorescence [2]. For a more homogenous illumina…

A method for skin malformation classification by combining multispectral and skin autofluorescence imaging

As the incidence of skin cancer is still increasing worldwide, there is a high demand for early, non-invasive and inexpensive skin lesion diagnostics. In this article we describe and combine two skin imaging methods: skin autofluorescence (AF) and multispectral criterion p’. To develop this method, we used custom made prototype with 405 nm, 526 nm, 663 nm and 964 nm LED illuminations, perpendicular positioned linear polarizers, 515 nm filter and IDS camera. Our aim is to develop a skin lesion diagnostic device for primary care physicians who do not have experience in dermatology or skin oncology. In this study we included such common benign lesion groups as seborrheic keratosis, hyperkerato…

Use of machine learning approaches to improve non-invasive skin melanoma diagnostic method in spectral range 450 - 950nm

Non-invasive skin cancer diagnostic methods develop rapidly thanks to Deep Learning and Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN). Currently, two types of diagnostics are popular: (a) using single image taken under white illumination and (b) using multiple images taken in narrow spectral bands. The first method is easier to implement, but it is limited in accuracy. The second method is more sensitive, because it is possible to use illumination considering the absorption bands of the skin chromophores and the optical properties of the skin. Currently CNN use a single white light image, due to the availability of large datasets with lesion images. Since CNN processing and analysis requires a large …

Semi-automated non-invasive diagnostics method for melanoma differentiation from nevi and pigmented basal cell carcinomas

The incidence of skin cancer is still increasing mostly in in industrialized countries with light- skinned people. Late tumour detection is the main reason of the high mortality associated with skin cancer. The accessibility of early diagnostics of skin cancer in Latvia is limited by several factors, such as high cost of dermatology services, long queues on state funded oncologist examinations, as well as inaccessibility of oncologists in the countryside regions - this is an actual clinical problem. The new strategies and guidelines for skin cancer early detection and post-surgical follow-up intend to realize the full body examination (FBE) by primary care physicians (general practitioners,…

Multispectral fluorescence detection of pigmented cutaneous tumours

We investigated pigmented skin tumour lesions in vivo and ex vivo, including benign and dysplastic nevi, as well as malignant lesions, such as pigmented basal cell carcinoma (BCC) and malignant melanoma (MM) lesions, to obtain a complex view about the feasibility of different excitation sources solely and/or in combination to induce fluorescence signal useful for diagnosis of various low-fluorescent cutaneous neoplasia. A specialized multispectral analysis of the data obtained was applied by using excitation in broad spectral range, covering ultraviolet, visible and near-infrared spectral range, that contribute considerably to: (1) fundamental determination of tumour tissues’ spectral prope…

Autofluorescence Imaging of the Skin Is an Objective Non-Invasive Technique for Diagnosing Pseudoxanthoma Elasticum

Pseudoxanthoma elasticum (PXE) is a rare multisystemic autosomal recessive connective tissue disease. In most cases, skin manifestations of PXE are the first to develop, followed later by severe ocular and cardiovascular complications. In our present study, in addition to dermoscopy, we introduced novel techniques, autofluorescence (AF) and diffuse reflectance (DR) imaging for the assessment of affected skin sites of five PXE patients. PXE-affected skin areas in most skin sites showed a previously observed pattern upon dermoscopic examination. With the novel imaging, PXE-affected skin lesions displayed high AF intensity. During our measurements, significantly higher mean, minimum and maximu…

089 Autofluorescence imaging for non-invasive visualization and quantification of skin lesions of patients with pseudoxanthoma elasticum

Imaging of LED-excited autofluorescence photobleaching rates for skin diagnostics

The aim of this study is to develop a novel non-invasive approach for skin cancer (melanoma, basal cell and squamous cell carcinomas) diagnostics by mapping the AF intensity decrease (photo-bleaching) rates under continuous 405 nm LED excitation. For parametric mapping of skin AF intensity decrease rates a sequence of filtered AF imaging under 405 nm LED excitation for 20 seconds at a power density of ~7 mW/cm2 with a frame rate 0.5 fps was recorded and analyzed by cloud-based prototype device. Several clinical cases and potential future applications of the proposed autofluorescence photobleaching rate imaging technique are discussed.

Visualization of Keratin with Diffuse Reflectance and Autofluorescence Imaging and Nonlinear Optical Microscopy in a Rare Keratinopathic Ichthyosis.

Keratins are one of the main fluorophores of the skin. Keratinization disorders can lead to alterations in the optical properties of the skin. We set out to investigate a rare form of keratinopathic ichthyosis caused by KRT1 mutation with two different optical imaging methods. We used a newly developed light emitting diode (LED) based device to analyze autofluorescence signal at 405 nm excitation and diffuse reflectance at 526 nm in vivo. Mean autofluorescence intensity of the hyperkeratotic palmar skin was markedly higher in comparison to the healthy control (162.35 vs. 51.14). To further assess the skin status, we examined samples from affected skin areas ex vivo by nonlinear optical micr…

Laser speckle imaging for early detection of microbial colony forming units

In this study, an optical contactless laser speckle imaging technique for the early identification of bacterial colony-forming units was tested. The aim of this work is to compare the laser speckle imaging method for the early assessment of microbial activity with standard visual inspection under white light illumination. In presented research, the growth of Vibrio natriegens bacterial colonies on the solid medium was observed and analyzed. Both – visual examination under white light illumination and laser speckle correlation analysis were performed. Based on various experiments and comparisons with the theoretical Gompertz model, colony radius growth curves were obtained. It was shown that…

Differentiation of seborrheic keratosis from basal cell carcinoma, nevi and melanoma by RGB autofluorescence imaging

A clinical trial on the autofluorescence imaging of skin lesions comprising 16 dermatologically confirmed pigmented nevi, 15 seborrheic keratosis, 2 dysplastic nevi, histologically confirmed 17 basal cell carcinomas and 1 melanoma was performed. The autofluorescence spatial properties of the skin lesions were acquired by smartphone RGB camera under 405 nm LED excitation. The diagnostic criterion is based on the calculation of the mean autofluorescence intensity of the examined lesion in the spectral range of 515 nm–700 nm. The proposed methodology is able to differentiate seborrheic keratosis from basal cell carcinoma, pigmented nevi and melanoma. The sensitivity and specificity of the prop…

Towards to deep neural network application with limited training data: synthesis of melanoma's diffuse reflectance spectral images

The goal of our study is to train artificial neural networks (ANN) using multispectral images of melanoma. Since the number of multispectral images of melanomas is limited, we offer to synthesize them from multispectral images of benign skin lesions. We used the previously created melanoma diagnostic criterion p'. This criterion is calculated from multispectral images of skin lesions captured under 526nm, 663nm, and 964nm LED illumination. We synthesize these three images from multispectral images of nevus so that the p' map matches the melanoma criteria (the values in the lesion area is >1, respectively). Demonstrated results show that by transforming multispectral images of benign nevus i…

Evaluation of skin pathologies by RGB autofluorescence imaging

A clinical trial on autofluorescence imaging of malignant and non-malignant skin pathologies comprising 32 basal cell carcinomas (BCC), 4 malignant melanomas (MM), 1 squamous cell carcinoma (SCC), 89 nevi, 14 dysplastic nevi, 20 hemangiomas, 23 seborrheic keratoses, 4 hyperkeratoses, 3 actinic keratoses, 3 psoriasis, 1 dematitis, 2 dermatofibromas, 5 papillofibromas, 12 lupus erythematosus, 7 purpura, 6 bruises, 5 freckles, 3 fungal infections, 1 burn, 1 tattoo, 1 age spot, 1 vitiligo, 32 postoperative scars, 8 post cream therapy BCCs, 4 post radiation therapy scars, 2 post laser therapy scars, 1 post freezing scar as well as 114 reference images of healthy skin was performed. The sequence …

Evaluation of Skin Melanoma in Spectral Range 450-950 nm Using Principal Component Analysis

Diagnostic potential of principal component analysis (PCA) of multi-spectral imaging data in the wavelength range 450-950 nm for distant skin melanoma recognition is discussed. Processing of the measured clinical data by means of PCA resulted in clear separation between malignant melanomas and pigmented nevi.

Autofluorescence imaging of basal cell carcinoma by smartphone RGB camera

The feasibility of smartphones for in vivo skin autofluorescence imaging has been investigated. Filtered autofluorescence images from the same tissue area were periodically captured by a smartphone RGB camera with subsequent detection of fluorescence intensity decreasing at each image pixel for further imaging the planar distribution of those values. The proposed methodology was tested clinically with 13 basal cell carcinoma and 1 atypical nevus. Several clinical cases and potential future applications of the smartphone-based technique are discussed.

Deep learning model deploying on embedded skin cancer diagnostic device

The number of research papers, where neural networks are applied in medical image analysis is growing. There is a proof that Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) are able to differentiate skin cancer from nevi with greater accuracy than experienced specialists on average (sensitivity 82% and 73% accordingly).1 Team's latest research2 allows achieving even greater accuracy, by using specific narrow-band illumination. Nevertheless, the overall probability of early skin cancer detection depends on the availability of diagnostic tools. If screening tools will be available to a high number of general practices, the chance of disease detection will increase. The previous research3 shows that scala…

Skin chromphore mapping by means of a modified video-microscope for skin malformation diagnosis

Many spectral imaging devices are commercially available and used to detect certain skin pathology; however an alternative cost-efficient device can provide an advanced spectral analisys of skin. Multispectral device for diagnosis of pigmented skin lesions was developed and tested. Possibilities to map skin chromophores using a modified low-cost digital video-microscope is discussed. It was adapted for an advanced skin microscopy and used for detailed spectral analysis of skin. The device comprises CMOS digital imaging sensor, four-colour LED illumination system and image acquisition optics. The main goal is to obtain a set of spectral images of the skin area of interest for further convers…

Embedded neural network system for microorganisms growth analysis

This study presents autonomous system for microorganisms’ growth analysis in laboratory environment. As shown in previous research, laser speckle analysis allows detecting submicron changes of substrate with growing bacteria. By using neural networks for speckle analysis, it is possible to develop autonomous system, that can evaluate microorganisms’ growth by using cheap optics and electronics elements. System includes embedded processing module, CMOS camera, 670nm laser diode and optionally WiFi module for connecting to external image storage system. Due to small size, system could be fully placed in laboratory incubator with constant humidity and temperature. By using laser diode, Petri d…

980nm laser for difficult-to-treat basal cell carcinoma

Abstract Begin basal cell carcinoma (BCC) is most common skin cancer over the world. There are around 20 modalities for BCC treatment. Laser surgery is uncommon option. We demonstrate our long term follow up results. Aim:To evaluate long term efficacy of a 980nm diode laser for the difficult-to-treat basal cell carcinoma. Materials and Methods: 167 patients with 173 basal cell carcinoma on the nose were treated with a 980 nm diode laser from May 1999 till May 2005 at Latvian Oncology center. All tumors were morphologically confirmed. 156 patients were followed for more than 5 years. Results: The lowest recurrence rate was observed in cases of superficial BCC, diameter<6mm; bet the highes…

Quantitative Multispectral Imaging Differentiates Melanoma from Seborrheic Keratosis.

Melanoma is a melanocytic tumor that is responsible for the most skin cancer-related deaths. By contrast, seborrheic keratosis (SK) is a very common benign lesion with a clinical picture that may resemble melanoma. We used a multispectral imaging device to distinguish these two entities, with the use of autofluorescence imaging with 405 nm and diffuse reflectance imaging with 525 and 660 narrow-band LED illumination. We analyzed intensity descriptors of the acquired images. These included ratios of intensity values of different channels, standard deviation and minimum/maximum values of intensity of the lesions. The pattern of the lesions was also assessed with the use of particle analysis. …