Differentiation of Benign Pigmented Skin Lesions with the Aid of Computer Image Analysis: A Novel Approach

BACKGROUND: The differential diagnosis of common pigmented skin lesions is important in cosmetic dermatology. The computer aided image analysis would be a potent ancillary diagnostic tool when patients are hesitant to undergo a skin biopsy. OBJECTIVE: We investigated the numerical parameters discriminating each pigmented skin lesion from another with statistical significance. METHODS: For each of the five magnified digital images containing clinically diagnosed nevus, lentigo and seborrheic keratosis, a total of 23 parameters describing the morphological, color, texture and topological features were calculated with the aid of a self-developed image analysis software. A novel concept of concentricity was proposed, which represents how closely the color segmentation resembles a concentric circle. RESULTS: Morphologically, seborrheic keratosis was bigger and spikier than nevus and lentigo. The color histogram revealed that nevus was the darkest and had the widest variation in tone. In the aspect of texture, the surface of the nevus showed the highest contrast and correlation. Finally, the color segmented pattern of the nevus and lentigo was far more concentric than that of seborrheic keratosis. CONCLUSION: We found that the subtle distinctions between nevus, lentigo and seborrheic keratosis, which are likely to be unrecognized by ocular inspection, are well emphasized and detected with the aid of software.