Towards the automatic detection of skin lesion shape asymmetry, color variegation and diameter in dermoscopic images

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 15; no. 6; p. e0234352
• Main Authors: Ali, Abder-Rahman, Li, Jingpeng, O'Shea, Sally Jane
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 16.06.2020; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Algorithms; Asymmetry; Causes of; Color; Complications and side effects; Computer science; Computer vision; Decision Making, Computer-Assisted; Decision trees; Dermatology; Dermoscopy - methods; Diagnosis; Diameters; Engineering and Technology; Evaluation; Health aspects; Humans; Identification and classification; Image processing; Image Processing, Computer-Assisted - methods; Lesions; Medical diagnosis; Medicine and Health Sciences; Melanoma; Melanoma - diagnosis; Melanoma - diagnostic imaging; Melanoma - pathology; Melanoma, Cutaneous Malignant; Physical Sciences; Research and Analysis Methods; Skewness; Skin cancer; Skin Diseases; Skin lesions; Skin Neoplasms - diagnosis; Skin Neoplasms - diagnostic imaging; Skin Neoplasms - pathology; Survival; Variegation; Vision systems; United Kingdom; United Kingdom > UK; Scotland
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0234352

Asymmetry, color variegation and diameter are considered strong indicators of malignant melanoma. The subjectivity inherent in the first two features and the fact that 10% of melanomas tend to be missed in the early diagnosis due to having a diameter less than 6mm, deem it necessary to develop an objective computer vision system to evaluate these criteria and aid in the early detection of melanoma which could eventually lead to a higher 5-year survival rate. This paper proposes an approach for evaluating the three criteria objectively, whereby we develop a measure to find asymmetry with the aid of a decision tree which we train on the extracted asymmetry measures and then use to predict the asymmetry of new skin lesion images. A range of colors that demonstrate the suspicious colors for the color variegation feature have been derived, and Feret's diameter has been utilized to find the diameter of the skin lesion. The decision tree is 80% accurate in determining the asymmetry of skin lesions, and the number of suspicious colors and diameter values are objectively identified.