Statistical techniques applied to the automatic diagnosis of dermoscopic images

An image based system implementing a well‐known diagnostic method is disclosed for the automatic detection of melanomas as support to clinicians. The software procedure is able to recognize automatically the skin lesion within the digital image, measure morphological and chromatic parameters, carry out a suitable classification for the detection of structural dermoscopic criteria provided by the 7‐Point Check. Original contribution is referred to advanced statistical techniques, which are introduced at different stages of the image processing, including the border detection, the extraction of low‐level features and scoring of high order features (namely dermoscopic criteria). The proposed approach is experimentally tested with reference to a large image set of pigmented lesions

Validity and reliability of dermoscopic criteria used to differentiate nevi from melanoma aweb-based international dermoscopy society study

IMPORTANCE The comparative diagnostic performance of dermoscopic algorithms and their individual criteria are not well studied. OBJECTIVES To analyze the discriminatory power and reliability of dermoscopic criteria used in melanoma detection and compare the diagnostic accuracy of existing algorithms. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS Thiswas a retrospective, observational study of 477 lesions (119 melanomas [24.9%] and 358 nevi [75.1%]), which were divided into 12 image sets that consisted of 39 or 40 images per set. A link on the International Dermoscopy Society website from January 1, 2011, through December 31, 2011, directed participants to the study website. Data analysis was performed from June 1, 2013, through May 31, 2015. Participants included physicians, residents, and medical students, and there were no specialty-Type or experience-level restrictions. Participants were randomly assigned to evaluate 1 of the 12 image sets. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES Associations with melanoma and intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) were evaluated for the presence of dermoscopic criteria. Diagnostic accuracy measures were estimated for the following algorithms: The ABCD rule, the Menzies method, the 7-point checklist, the 3-point checklist, chaos and clues, and CASH (color, architecture, symmetry, and homogeneity). RESULTS A total of 240 participants registered, and 103 (42.9%) evaluated all images. The 110 participants (45.8%) who evaluated fewer than 20 lesions were excluded, resulting in data from 130 participants (54.2%), 121 (93.1%) of whom were regular dermoscopy users. Criteria associated with melanoma included marked architectural disorder (odds ratio [OR], 6.6; 95%CI, 5.6-7.8), pattern asymmetry (OR, 4.9; 95%CI, 4.1-5.8), nonorganized pattern (OR, 3.3; 95%CI, 2.9-3.7), border score of 6 (OR, 3.3; 95%CI, 2.5-4.3), and contour asymmetry (OR, 3.2; 95%CI, 2.7-3.7) (P < .001 for all). Most dermoscopic criteria had poor to fair interobserver agreement. Criteria that reached moderate levels of agreement included comma vessels (ICC, 0.44; 95%CI, 0.40-0.49), absence of vessels (ICC, 0.46; 95%CI, 0.42-0.51), dark brown color (ICC, 0.40; 95%CI, 0.35-0.44), and architectural disorder (ICC, 0.43; 95%CI, 0.39-0.48). The Menziesmethod had the highest sensitivity for melanoma diagnosis (95.1%) but the lowest specificity (24.8%) compared with any other method (P < .001). The ABCD rule had the highest specificity (59.4%). All methods had similar areas under the receiver operating characteristic curves. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE Important dermoscopic criteria for melanoma recognition were revalidated by participants with varied experience. Six algorithms tested had similar but modest levels of diagnostic accuracy, and the interobserver agreement of most individual criteria was poor

Analysis of Globule Types in Malignant Melanoma

Objective: To identify and analyze subtypes of globules based on size, shape, network connectedness, pigmentation, and distribution to determine which globule types and globule distributions are most frequently associated with a diagnosis of malignant melanoma. Design: Retrospective case series of dermoscopy images with globules. Setting: Private dermatology practices. Participants: Patients in dermatology practices. Intervention: Observation only. Main Outcome Measure: Association of globule types with malignant melanoma. Results: The presence of large globules (odds ratio [OR], 5.25) and globules varying in size (4.72) or shape (5.37) had the highest ORs for malignant melanoma among all globule types and combinations studied. Classical globules (dark, discrete, convex, and 0.10-0.20 mm) had a higher risk (OR, 4.20) than irregularly shaped globules (dark, discrete, and not generally convex) (2.89). Globules connected to other structures were not significant in the diagnosis of malignant melanoma. Of the different configurations studied, asymmetric clusters have the highest risk (OR, 3.02). Conclusions: The presence of globules of varying size or shape seems to be more associated with a diagnosis of malignant melanoma than any other globule type or distribution in this study. Large globules are of particular importance in the diagnosis of malignant melanoma

Recent advances in diagnosing cutaneous melanomas

Early detection of lesions while minimising the unnecessary removal of benign lesions is the clinical aim in melanoma diagnosis. In this context, several non-invasive diagnostic modalities, such as dermoscopy, total body photography, and reflectance confocal microscopy have emerged in recent years aiming at increasing diagnostic accuracy. The main developments in this field are the integration of dermoscopy and digital photography into clinical practice

Computer aided diagnosis system using dermatoscopical image

Computer Aided Diagnosis (CAD) systems for melanoma detection aim to mirror the expert dermatologist decision when watching a dermoscopic or clinical image. Computer Vision techniques, which can be based on expert knowledge or not, are used to characterize the lesion image. This information is delivered to a machine learning algorithm, which gives a diagnosis suggestion as an output. This research is included into this field, and addresses the objective of implementing a complete CAD system using ‘state of the art’ descriptors and dermoscopy images as input. Some of them are based on expert knowledge and others are typical in a wide variety of problems. Images are initially transformed into oRGB, a perceptual color space, looking for both enhancing the information that images provide and giving human perception to machine algorithms. Feature selection is also performed to find features that really contribute to discriminate between benign and malignant pigmented skin lesions (PSL). The problem of robust model fitting versus statistically significant system evaluation is critical when working with small datasets, which is indeed the case. This topic is not generally considered in works related to PSLs. Consequently, a method that optimizes the compromise between these two goals is proposed, giving non-overfitted models and statistically significant measures of performance. In this manner, different systems can be compared in a fairer way. A database which enjoys wide international acceptance among dermatologists is used for the experiments.Ingeniería de Sistemas Audiovisuale

Cancer diagnosis using deep learning: A bibliographic review

In this paper, we first describe the basics of the field of cancer diagnosis, which includes steps of cancer diagnosis followed by the typical classification methods used by doctors, providing a historical idea of cancer classification techniques to the readers. These methods include Asymmetry, Border, Color and Diameter (ABCD) method, seven-point detection method, Menzies method, and pattern analysis. They are used regularly by doctors for cancer diagnosis, although they are not considered very efficient for obtaining better performance. Moreover, considering all types of audience, the basic evaluation criteria are also discussed. The criteria include the receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC curve), Area under the ROC curve (AUC), F1 score, accuracy, specificity, sensitivity, precision, dice-coefficient, average accuracy, and Jaccard index. Previously used methods are considered inefficient, asking for better and smarter methods for cancer diagnosis. Artificial intelligence and cancer diagnosis are gaining attention as a way to define better diagnostic tools. In particular, deep neural networks can be successfully used for intelligent image analysis. The basic framework of how this machine learning works on medical imaging is provided in this study, i.e., pre-processing, image segmentation and post-processing. The second part of this manuscript describes the different deep learning techniques, such as convolutional neural networks (CNNs), generative adversarial models (GANs), deep autoencoders (DANs), restricted Boltzmann’s machine (RBM), stacked autoencoders (SAE), convolutional autoencoders (CAE), recurrent neural networks (RNNs), long short-term memory (LTSM), multi-scale convolutional neural network (M-CNN), multi-instance learning convolutional neural network (MIL-CNN). For each technique, we provide Python codes, to allow interested readers to experiment with the cited algorithms on their own diagnostic problems. The third part of this manuscript compiles the successfully applied deep learning models for different types of cancers. Considering the length of the manuscript, we restrict ourselves to the discussion of breast cancer, lung cancer, brain cancer, and skin cancer. The purpose of this bibliographic review is to provide researchers opting to work in implementing deep learning and artificial neural networks for cancer diagnosis a knowledge from scratch of the state-of-the-art achievements

Dermatoscopy

This book is a collection of chapters on dermatoscopy, which is a fast, easy-to-learn, low-cost, and non-invasive diagnostic method utilizing the Rayleigh scattering phenomenon to visualize epidermal and subepidermal structures. Dermatoscopy has become increasingly popular for allowing visualization of structures that are impossible to see with the naked eye. Its use provides insight into the biological potential of skin lesions, enabling efficient management and follow-up. The book focuses on the features of some of the most common skin neoplasms, such as combined nevi, as well as those that are more challenging to assess, such as pigmented lesions of the eyelid margins. It also provides novel insights into the role of dermatoscopy in palmoplantar dermatoses and discusses precautions in dermatoscopy during the SARS-CoV2 pandemic

Segmentation of the melanoma lesion and its border

Segmentation of the border of the human pigmented lesions has a direct impact on the diagnosis of malignant melanoma. In this work, we examine performance of (i) morphological segmentation of a pigmented lesion by region growing with the adaptive threshold and density-based DBSCAN clustering algorithm, and (ii) morphological segmentation of the pigmented lesion border by region growing of the lesion and the background skin. Research tasks (i) and (ii) are evaluated by a human expert and tested on two data sets, A and B, of different origins, resolution, and image quality. The preprocessing step consists of removing the black frame around the lesion and reducing noise and artifacts. The halo is removed by cutting out the dark circular region and filling it with an average skin color. Noise is reduced by a family of Gaussian filters 3×3−7×7 to improve the contrast and smooth out possible distortions. Some other filters are also tested. Artifacts like dark thick hair or ruler/ink markers are removed from the images by using the DullRazor closing images for all RGB colors for a hair brightness threshold below a value of 25 or, alternatively, by the BTH transform. For the segmentation, JFIF luminance representation is used. In the analysis (i), out of each dermoscopy image, a lesion segmentation mask is produced. For the region growing we get a sensitivity of 0.92/0.85, a precision of 0.98/0.91, and a border error of 0.08/0.15 for data sets A/B, respectively. For the density-based DBSCAN algorithm, we get a sensitivity of 0.91/0.89, a precision of 0.95/0.93, and a border error of 0.09/0.12 for data sets A/B, respectively. In the analysis (ii), out of each dermoscopy image, a series of lesion, background, and border segmentation images are derived. We get a sensitivity of about 0.89, a specificity of 0.94 and an accuracy of 0.91 for data set A, and a sensitivity of about 0.85, specificity of 0.91 and an accuracy of 0.89 for data set B. Our analyses show that the improved methods of region growing and density-based clustering performed after proper preprocessing may be good tools for the computer-aided melanoma diagnosis

Computational Methods for Pigmented Skin Lesion Classification in Images: Review and Future Trends

Skin cancer is considered as one of the most common types of cancer in several countries, and its incidence rate has increased in recent years. Melanoma cases have caused an increasing number of deaths worldwide, since this type of skin cancer is the most aggressive compared to other types. Computational methods have been developed to assist dermatologists in early diagnosis of skin cancer. An overview of the main and current computational methods that have been proposed for pattern analysis and pigmented skin lesion classification is addressed in this review. In addition, a discussion about the application of such methods, as well as future trends, is also provided. Several methods for feature extraction from both macroscopic and dermoscopic images and models for feature selection are introduced and discussed. Furthermore, classification algorithms and evaluation procedures are described, and performance results for lesion classification and pattern analysis are given