title: Automatic Differential Diagnosis of Melanocytic Skin Tumors Using Ultrasound Data.
abstract: We describe a novel automatic diagnostic system based on quantitative analysis of ultrasound data for differential diagnosis of melanocytic skin tumors. The proposed method has been tested on 160 ultrasound data sets (80 of malignant melanoma and 80 of benign melanocytic nevi). Acoustical, textural and shape features have been evaluated for each segmented lesion. Using parameters selected according to Mahalanobis distance and linear support vector machine classifier, we are able to differentiate malignant melanoma from benign melanocytic skin tumors with 82.4% accuracy (sensitivity = 85.8%, specificity = 79.6%). The results indicate that high-frequency ultrasound has the potential to be used for differential diagnosis of melanocytic skin tumors and to provide supplementary information on lesion penetration depth. The proposed system can be used as an additional tool for clinical decision support to improve the early-stage detection of malignant melanoma.
authors.affiliation: Ultrasound Institute, Kaunas University of Technology, Kaunas, Lithuania. Electronic address: kristina.andrekute@ktu.lt.
authors.forename: Kristina
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Andrėkutė
authors.affiliation: Department of Skin and Venereal Diseases, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Kaunas, Lithuania.
authors.forename: Gintarė
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Linkevičiūtė
authors.affiliation: Ultrasound Institute, Kaunas University of Technology, Kaunas, Lithuania.
authors.forename: Renaldas
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Raišutis
authors.affiliation: Department of Skin and Venereal Diseases, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Kaunas, Lithuania.
authors.forename: Skaidra
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Valiukevičienė
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Kaunas, Lithuania.
authors.forename: Jurgita
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Makštienė
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008545:Melanoma / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009508:Nevus, Pigmented / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012867:Skin / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D012878:Skin Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D014463:Ultrasonography / Q000379:methods*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Automatic diagnosis; Malignant melanoma; Radiofrequency signal; Spectral analysis; Tissue characterization; Ultrasound