Granulomatous fasciitis followed by morphea profunda: Is granulomatous fasciitis part of a spectrum of deep morphea? A case report and review of the literature.

Although eosinophilic fasciitis is known to be part of the deep morphea spectrum, this first report of the coexistence of granulomatous fasciitis and morphea profunda suggests that granulomatous fasciitis may also be a part of the spectrum of deep morphea

Image based system for the qualification of skin erythema

Skin allergy tests are the main procedure for diagnosing IgE-mediated reactions; which are commonly known as allergy. These reactions are produced by an overreaction of the immune system to substances that get in contact with the body, called allergens. From the skin allergy tests, the most commonly performed procedures are the skin prick tests (SPTs), which are based on introducing a small drop of allergen within the epidermis. If an allergic reaction occurs, histamine is released, causing local blood vessels to dilate, and thus, increasing the concentration of RBCs. Consequently, the local skin region becomes red in appearance, which is known as erythema. In addition, another symptom of this reaction is the increase in venules’ permeability, which produces a leakage of plasma (mainly composed by water). Then, extracellular fluid accumulates and a wheal appears. The dimensions of this wheal are used to determine if an specific allergen provokes a hypersensitivity reaction or not. This diagnostic method is based on visual appearance, which is subjected to userdependency. There is not an standardized way for measuring the wheal diameter, nor the erythematous area dimensions. Therefore, the objective of this work is to implement an image based system for performing an automatic diagnosis for hypersensitivity reactions. To achieve this, skin optical properties and light propagation within tissue are studied. Besides, for this purpose, absorbance and scattering coefficients for hemoglobin (contained in erythema) and water (contained in edema) are used for determining the illumination setup of the system. The specified wavelengths enhance visual appearance of erythema’s and edema’s light reflectance. From these values, absorption maps are built, which are then used to quantify both chromophore’s concentrations. The implementation of this system would mean an standardization for allergy tests diagnosis, as well as a cost reduction in experts training.Ingeniería Biomédic

Infrared imaging spectroscopy of skin cancer lesions

Skin cancer is a disease of the twenty-first century since, unfortunately, being tan is associated to be healthy and good looking. UV radiation produces one of the most aggressive kinds of skin cancer: melanoma; once the damage is done there is no other solution that a rapid and effective diagnosis. Clinical examination and biopsies have shown to be slow and costly in many ways, so the possibility of getting a non-invasive optical detection of skin melanomas became a hot topic in biophotonics. In this context, multispectral imaging systems have approached the problem, but none of them worked inside the infrared range. Hence, this work has been proposed as an interesting, long-term project to further investigate about the possibilities of infrared imaging spectroscopy for the early detection of skin cancer through the development of such a system based on an InGaAs camera

Automated detection of actinic keratoses in clinical photographs

Backgroun

Optical Non-Invasive Approaches to Diagnosis of Skin Diseases

A number of noninvasive approaches have been developed over the years to provide objective evaluation of the skin both in health and in disease. The advent of computers, as well as of lasers and photonics, has made it possible to develop additional techniques that were impossible a few years ago. These approaches provide the dermatologist with sensitive tools to measure the skin's condition in terms of physiologic parameters (e.g., color, erythema and pigmentation, induration, sebaceous and stratum corneum lipids, barrier function, etc.). Yet, a typical dermatologic diagnosis relies primarily on the trained eyes of the physician and to a lesser extent on information from other senses, such as touch and smell. The trained senses of the dermatologist backed by his/her brain form a powerful set of tools for evaluating the skin. The golden rule in diagnosis remains the histologic examination of a skin biopsy, a rather invasive method. These tools have served the profession well. The advent of ever faster and cheaper computers and of sensitive, inexpensive optical instrumentation of minimal dimensions provides the professional with the possibility of making objective measures of a number of skin parameters

Automatic image characterization of psoriasis lesions

Psoriasis is a chronic skin disease that affects 125 million people worldwide and, particularly, 2% of the Spanish population, characterized by the appearance of skin lesions due to a growth of the epidermis that is seven times larger than usual. Its diagnosis and monitoring are based on the use of methodologies for measuring the severity and extent of these spots, and this includes a large subjective component. For this reason, this paper presents an automatic method for characterizing psoriasis images that is divided into four parts: image preparation or pre-processing, feature extraction, classification of the lesions, and the obtaining of parameters. The methodology proposed in this work covers different digital-image processing techniques, namely, marker-based image delimitation, hair removal, nipple detection, lesion contour detection, areal-measurement-based lesion classification, as well as lesion characterization by means of red and white intensity. The results obtained were also endorsed by a professional dermatologist. This methodology provides professionals with a common software tool for monitoring the different existing typologies, which proved satisfactory in the cases analyzed for a set of 20 images corresponding to different types of lesions.Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad | Ref. TIN2016-76770-

Investigating the Impact of Demographic Factors on Contactless Fingerprint Interoperability

Improvements in contactless fingerprinting have resulted in contactless fingerprints becoming a faster and more convenient alternative to contact fingerprints. The interoperability between contactless fingerprints and contact fingerprints and how demographic factors can change interoperability has been challenging since COVID-19; the need for hygienic alternatives has only grown because of the sudden focus during the pandemic. Past work has shown issues with the interoperability of contactless prints from kiosk devices and phone fingerprint collection apps. Demographic bias in photography for facial recognition could affect photographed fingerprints. The paper focuses on evaluating match performance between contact and contactless fingerprints and evaluating match score bias based on five skin demographics; melanin, erythema, and the three measurements of the CIELab color space. The interoperability of three fingerprint matchers was tested. The best and worst Area Under the Curve (AUC) and Equal Error Rate (EER) values for the best-performing matcher were an AUC of 0.99398 and 0.97873 and an EER of 0.03016 and 0.07555, respectively, while the best contactless AUC and EER were 0.99337 and 0.03387 indicating that contactless match performance can be as good as contact fingerprints depending on the device. In contrast, the best and worst AUC and EER for the cellphone contactless fingerprints were an AUC of 0.96812 and 0.85772 and an EER of 0.08699 and 0.22130, falling short of the lowest performing contact fingerprints. Demographic analysis was on the top two of the three matchers based on the top one percent of non-match scores. Resulting efforts found matcher-specific bias for melanin showing specific ranges affected by low and high melanin values. While higher levels of erythema and general redness of the skin improved performance. Higher lightness values showed a decreased performance in the top-performing matcher

Intrarater Reliability of Digital Thermography in Detecting Pin Site Infection:A Proof of Concept Study

AIM AND OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to explore the capability and Intrarater reliability of thermography in detecting pin site infection. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This is an explorative proof of concept study. Clinical assessment of pin sites was performed by one examiner with the Modified Gordon Pin Infection Classification from grade 0 to 6. Thermography of the pin sites was performed with a FLIR C3 camera. The analysis of the thermographic images was done in the software FLIR Tools. The maximum skin temperature around the pin site and the maximum temperature for the whole thermographic picture were measured. An Intrarater agreement was established and test-retests were performed with different camera angles. RESULTS: Thirteen (four females, nine males) patients (age 9–72 years) were included. Indications for frames: Fracture (n=4), two deformity correction, one lengthening and six bone transport. Days from surgery to thermography ranged from 27 to 385 days. Overall, 231 pin sites were included. Eleven pin sites were diagnosed with early signs of infection: five grade 1, five grade 2 and one grade 3. Mean pin site temperature for each patient was calculated, varied between patients from 29.0°C to 35.4°C (mean 33.9°C). With 34°C as cut-off value for infection, sensitivity was 73%; specificity, 67%; positive predictive value, 10%; and negative predictive value, 98%. Intrarater agreement for thermography was ICC 0.85 (0.77–0.92). The temperature measured was influenced by the camera positioning in relation to the pin site with a variance of 0.2. CONCLUSIONS: Measurements of pin site temperature using the hand-held FLIR C3 infrared camera was a reliable method and the temperature was related to infection grading. CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE: This study demonstrated that digital thermography with a hand-held camera might be used for monitoring the pin sites after operations to detect early infection. HOW TO CITE THIS ARTICLE: Rahbek O, Husum HC, Fridberg M, et al. Intrarater Reliability of Digital Thermography in Detecting Pin Site Infection: A Proof of Concept Study. Strategies Trauma Limb Reconstr 2021;16(1):1–7

Automatic image characterization of psoriasis lesions

Psoriasis is a chronic skin disease that affects 125 million people worldwide and, par-ticularly, 2% of the Spanish population, characterized by the appearance of skin lesions due to a growth of the epidermis that is seven times larger than usual. Its diagnosis and monitoring are based on the use of methodologies for measuring the severity and extent of these spots, and this includes a large subjective component. For this reason, this paper presents an automatic method for characterizing psoriasis images that is divided into four parts: image preparation or pre-processing, feature extraction, classification of the lesions, and the obtaining of parameters. The methodology proposed in this work covers different digital-image processing techniques, namely, marker-based image delimitation, hair removal, nipple detection, lesion contour detection, areal-measurement-based lesion classification, as well as lesion characterization by means of red and white intensity. The results obtained were also endorsed by a professional dermatologist. This methodology provides professionals with a common software tool for monitoring the different existing typologies, which proved satisfactory in the cases analyzed for a set of 20 images corresponding to different types of lesions