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Automatic skin lesion area determination of basal cell carcinoma using optical coherence tomography angiography and a skeletonization approach: Preliminary results
Author(s) -
Meiburger Kristen M.,
Chen Zhe,
Sinz Christoph,
Hoover Erich,
Minneman Michael,
Ensher Jason,
Kittler Harald,
Leitgeb Rainer A.,
Drexler Wolfgang,
Liu Mengyang
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
journal of biophotonics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.877
H-Index - 66
eISSN - 1864-0648
pISSN - 1864-063X
DOI - 10.1002/jbio.201900131
Subject(s) - lesion , basal cell carcinoma , skeletonization , angiography , medicine , optical coherence tomography , blood flow , pathology , radiology , tomography , optical coherence tomography angiography , basal cell , biomedical engineering , anatomy
Cutaneous blood flow plays a key role in numerous physiological and pathological processes and has significant potential to be used as a biomarker to diagnose skin diseases such as basal cell carcinoma (BCC). The determination of the lesion area and vascular parameters within it, such as vessel density, is essential for diagnosis, surgical treatment and follow‐up procedures. Here, an automatic skin lesion area determination algorithm based on optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) images is presented for the first time. The blood vessels are segmented within the OCTA images and then skeletonized. Subsequently, the skeleton is searched over the volume and numerous quantitative vascular parameters are calculated. The vascular density is then used to segment the lesion area. The algorithm is tested on both nodular and superficial BCC, and comparing with dermatological and histological results, the proposed method provides an accurate, non‐invasive, quantitative and automatic tool for BCC lesion area determination.