Telespectrophotometry of human skin diseases by means of a CCD camera

ABSTRACT Spectrophotometry of in vivo skin pigmented lesions by means of an integrating sphere coupled to a conventional spectrophotometer has recently been suggested as a useful tool to discriminatecutaneous melanoma from other pigmented cutaneous lesions. To improve reflectance spectral analysis of moles, a new spectrophotometric procedure based on the use of a CCD camera provided with interferential filters has been developed. Preliminary results suggest that the new method,allowing a spatially resolved analysis of the spectral components from 420 to 1040 nm, would improve, when properly implemented with imaging data handling, the quality of a computer assisteddiagnosis of malignant lesions. 1. INTRODUCTION Clinical diagnosis of cutaneous melanoma (c.m.) has to face two main problems: i) the predictive value is low outside a highly specialized center; ii) evaluation of the parameters used to makeclinical diagnosis is quite subjective. Of the five characteristics used in making diagnosis, which