Computer aided analysis of epi-illumination and transillumination images of skin lesions for diagnosis of skin cancers

Brian D'Alessandro, Atam P. Dhawan, Nizar Mullani

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

8 Scopus citations

Abstract

Skin lesion pigmentation area from surface, or, epi-illumination (ELM) images and blood volume area from transillumination (TLM) images are useful features to aid a dermatologist in the diagnosis of melanoma and other skin cancers in early curable stages. However, segmentation of these areas is difficult. In this work, we present an automatic segmentation tool for ELM and TLM images that also provides additional choices for user selection and interaction with adaptive learning. Our tool uses a combination of k-means clustering, wavelet analysis, and morphological operations to segment the lesion and blood volume, and then presents the user with six segmentation suggestions for both ELM and TLM images. The final selection of segmentation boundary may then be iteratively improved through scoring by multiple users. The ratio of TLM to ELM segmented areas is an indicator of dysplasia in skin lesions for detection of skin cancers, and this ratio is found to show a statistically significant trend in association with lesion dysplasia on a set of 81 pathologically validated lesions (p = 0.0058). We then present a support vector machine classifier using the results from the interactive segmentation method along with ratio, color, texture, and shape features to characterize skin lesions into three degrees of dysplasia with promising accuracy.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publication33rd Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, EMBS 2011
PublisherInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
Pages3434-3438
Number of pages5
ISBN (Print)9781424441211
DOIs
StatePublished - 2011
Event33rd Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, EMBS 2011 - Boston, MA, United States
Duration: Aug 30 2011Sep 3 2011

Publication series

NameProceedings of the Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, EMBS
ISSN (Print)1557-170X

Other

Other33rd Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, EMBS 2011
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityBoston, MA
Period8/30/119/3/11

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Signal Processing
  • Biomedical Engineering
  • Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
  • Health Informatics

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