Detection of basal cell carcinoma using color and histogram measures of semitranslucent areas.
BACKGROUND
Semitranslucency, defined as a smooth, jelly-like area with varied, near-skin-tone color, can indicate a diagnosis of basal cell carcinoma (BCC) with high specificity. This study sought to analyze potential areas of semitranslucency with histogram-derived texture and color measures to discriminate BCC from non-semitranslucent areas in non-BCC skin lesions.


METHODS
For 210 dermoscopy images, the areas of semitranslucency in 42 BCCs and comparable areas of smoothness and color in 168 non-BCCs were selected manually. Six color measures and six texture measures were applied to the semitranslucent areas of the BCC and the comparable areas in the non-BCC images.


RESULTS
Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis showed that the texture measures alone provided greater separation of BCC from non-BCC than the color measures alone. Statistical analysis showed that the four most important measures of semitranslucency are three histogram measures: contrast, smoothness, and entropy, and one color measure: blue chromaticity. Smoothness is the single most important measure. The combined 12 measures achieved a diagnostic accuracy of 95.05% based on area under the ROC curve.


CONCLUSIONS
Texture and color analysis measures, especially smoothness, may afford automatic detection of BCC images with semitranslucency.
Stoecker
William V
WV
Stoecker and Associates, The Dermatology Center, 1702 E. 10th St. Rolla, MO, USA.
Gupta
Kapil
K
Shrestha
Bijaya
B
Wronkiewiecz
Mark
M
Chowdhury
Raeed
R
Stanley
R Joe
RJ
Xu
Jin
J
Moss
Randy H
RH
Celebi
M Emre
ME
Rabinovitz
Harold S
HS
Oliviero
Margarat
M
Malters
Joseph M
JM
Kolm
Isabel
I
D002280:Basal Cell Carcinoma / Q000473:pathology*; D003124:Colorimetry / Q000379:methods*; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D046169:Dermoscopy / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D007090:Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012878:Skin Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*; D012880:Skin Pigmentation