Melanoma - skin cancer reviewed

    There are many skin image capture methodologies developed and used. Here are short review of them:

Dermatoscopic photography

The deepest layer of skin can be reached - Papillary dermis

Resolution – depends on optical system

View of skin – Horizontal

The main disadvantage is reflections of light from skin surface – stratum cornea.

Dermatoscopic oil immersion photography

The deepest layer of skin can be reached - Papillary dermis

Resolution – depends on optical system

View of skin – Horizontal

Reflections of light from skin surface are smaller because of oil used between camera optics and skin.

Fluid free dermatoscopic photography, polarized light

This method gives similar results as using oil immersion. It is cleaner image taking method, because sin is kept dry and there is no wet contact with camera.

Trimodal light source

    The deepest layer of skin can be reached - Papillary dermis

    Resolution – depends on optical system

    View of skin – Horizontal

This is special method of light directing to deeper skin layers avoiding passing the lesion surface. It gives very good results of skin deeper layer imaging.

CSLM

    CLSM  - laser scanning microscope system. There laser beam is focused to particular skin layer and     scanned 2D image in this deep. This method is handy when taking deeper layers of skin. The deep can be from 2 to 300ukm.

Multispectral dermatoscopy

This method is described in earlier articles. There are multispectral light used to take separate pictures. Then calculation is used evaluate pigmentation of different skin layers. This is progressive methodology in diagnosis.

Optical Coherence Tomography

There is interference of two different light sources. One is directed to skin and other is reference to determine the depth. This method is more advanced and not suitable for screening. The depth can be achieved - 15 - 2 μm.

High Resolution Ultrasonic Imaging

    There is high frequency ultrasound used to determine lesion boundaries before surgery. In early skin cancer detection this method hardly can be used, as the difference between healthy and suspicious regions are minimal. But combining Ultrasound and lets say multispectral photography can show good results.