title: Objective interpretation of severity of SLS induced edema by stereoimaging.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  In the evaluation of the severity of skin inflammations, visual scoring system is widely being used as a subjective method. However, it is well known that interobserver variations occur even between the interpretations of experienced dermatologists.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To develop a new objective and quantitative method for the evaluation of skin surface contours and for the assessment of severity in SLS-induced edema, a new investigatory tool based on the concept of "stereoimaging" was studied. Differences between binocular images were used by a stereoimage optical topometer (SOT) system capable of calculating skin surface topographic information, which was then used to produce a three-dimensional image.
  
  
  METHODS
  We compared the results obtained by SOT with a visual scoring system after applying sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS) to skin. The degree of edema was assessed qualitatively by visual scoring (0: none, 1: mild edema, 2: moderate edema, 3: severe edema). To quantify the severity, five three-dimensional parameters (S(a), S(z), SL, SA and SV) were used in the SOT analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The means of these five parameters increased significantly in visual grade 1+ compared to visual grade 0 and the means of the five parameters decreased significantly and proportionally as the visual grades increased from 1+ to 3+. A highly significant correlation was found to exist between the visual scoring results and the five SOT parameters.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  SOT can be used to evaluate the severity of SLS-induced edema objectively and can be extensively applied to evaluate the degree of severity in other inflammatory skin conditions.
authors.affiliation: Department of Electric and Information Engineering, Korea University, Chungnam, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Min-Gi
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Sang-Yong
authors.initials: SY
authors.lastname: Park
authors.forename: Seung-Han
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Ha
authors.forename: Jae-Dong
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Seung-Hyun
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Hong
authors.forename: Jong-Sub
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Moon
authors.forename: Chil-Hwan
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Oh
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D004487:Edema / Q000139:chemically induced* / Q000473:pathology*; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D012867:Skin / Q000473:pathology*; D012871:Skin Diseases / Q000139:chemically induced* / Q000473:pathology*; D012967:Sodium Dodecyl Sulfate
chemical_list: D012967:Sodium Dodecyl Sulfate