Toward an automatic 3D measurement of skin wheals from skin prick tests

The skin prick test (SPT) is the standard method for the diagnosis of allergies. It consists in placing an array of allergen drops on the skin of a patient, typically the volar forearm, and pricking them with a lancet to provoke a specific dermal reaction described as a wheal. The diagnosis is performed by measuring the diameter of the skin wheals, although wheals are not usually circular which leads to measurement inconsistencies. Moreover, the conventional approach is to measure their size with a ruler. This method has been proven prone to inter- and intra-observer variations. We have developed a 3D imaging system for the 3D reconstruction of the SPT. Here, we describe the proposed method for the automatic measurements of the wheals based on 3D data processing to yield reliable results. The method is based on a robust parametric fitting to the 3D data for obtaining the diameter directly. We evaluate the repeatability of the system under 3D reconstructions for different object poses. Although the system provides higher accuracy in the measurement, we compare the results to those produced by a physician.