Multispectral autofluorescence dermoscope for skin lesion assessment

Area of Science:

• Dermatology
• Medical Imaging
• Biophotonics

Background:

• Basal cell carcinoma (BCC) is the most common skin cancer, often misdiagnosed due to similarities with benign lesions and healthy tissue.
• Current diagnostic methods rely heavily on physician expertise, leading to underdiagnosis and challenges in precise lesion edge assessment.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the feasibility and efficacy of a multispectral fluorescence lifetime imaging (FLIm) dermoscopy system for diagnosing nodular BCC (nBCC).
• To assess the potential of FLIm as an image-guided tool for improving nBCC delineation during surgical procedures.

Main Methods:

• A cohort of 38 patients with diagnosed nBCC underwent imaging using a custom-built multispectral FLIm dermoscopy system.
• The system captured skin autofluorescence in three emission bands (390±20 nm, 452±22 nm, >496 nm) targeting collagen, NADH, and FAD.
• Statistical classifiers were developed using FLIm features to differentiate BCC from healthy skin.

Main Results:

• The FLIm system successfully imaged nBCC lesions with clinically acceptable light exposure levels.
• Statistical classifiers demonstrated promising performance in discriminating BCC from healthy tissue, achieving an ROC area-under-the-curve of 0.82.
• The study confirmed the feasibility of clinical application for multispectral endogenous FLIm dermoscopy.

Conclusions:

• Multispectral FLIm dermoscopy is a feasible technology for clinical use in skin cancer diagnosis.
• This imaging technique shows significant potential to improve the accuracy of BCC delineation, aiding surgeons in lesion resection.
• FLIm offers a promising non-invasive tool to enhance diagnostic capabilities for basal cell carcinoma.