title: Automated segmentation of pigmented skin lesions in multispectral imaging.
abstract: The aim of this study was to develop an algorithm for the automatic segmentation of multispectral images of pigmented skin lesions. The study involved 1700 patients with 1856 cutaneous pigmented lesions, which were analysed in vivo by a novel spectrophotometric system, before excision. The system is able to acquire a set of 15 different multispectral images at equally spaced wavelengths between 483 and 951 nm. An original segmentation algorithm was developed and applied to the whole set of lesions and was able to automatically contour them all. The obtained lesion boundaries were shown to two expert clinicians, who, independently, rejected 54 of them. The 97.1% contour accuracy indicates that the developed algorithm could be a helpful and effective instrument for the automatic segmentation of skin pigmented lesions.
authors.affiliation: Medical Physics Unit, Istituto Nazionale per lo Studio e la Cura dei Tumori, Milan, Italy. mauro.carrara@istitutotumori.mi.it
authors.forename: Mauro
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Carrara
authors.forename: Stefano
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tomatis
authors.forename: Aldo
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bono
authors.forename: Cesare
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bartoli
authors.forename: Daniele
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Moglia
authors.forename: Manuela
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lualdi
authors.forename: Ambrogio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Colombo
authors.forename: Mario
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Santinami
authors.forename: Renato
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Marchesini
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000465:Algorithms; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012867:Skin / Q000473:pathology*; D012880:Skin Pigmentation; D013053:Spectrophotometry / Q000379:methods*