Towards noncontact skin melanoma selection by multispectral imaging analysis

A clinical trial comprising 334 pigmented and vascular lesions has been performed in three Riga clinics by means of multispectral imaging analysis. The imaging system Nuance 2.4 (CRi) and self-developed software for mapping of the main skin chromophores were used. Specific features were observed and analyzed for malignant skin melanomas: notably higher absorbance (especially as the difference of optical density relative to the healthy skin), uneven chromophore distribution over the lesion area, and the possibility to select the melanoma areas in the correlation graphs of chromophores. The obtained results indicate clinical potential of this technology for noncontact selection of melanoma from other pigmented and vascular skin lesions. (C) 2011 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). [DOI: 10.1117/1.3584846]