A possible new tool for clinical diagnosis of melanoma: the computer.

The analysis of cutaneous melanoma images by two coupled computers (IBM 7350/4361) was carried out on twenty color slides. Each color slide was digitized with a spatial reduction of 25 X 25 microns. Classic technics of digital image analysis and new algorithms were used to improve the contrast on the full image or a portion of it, contrast a skin lesion with statistical information deduced from another lesion, evaluate the shape of the lesion, the roughness of the surface, and the transition region from the lesion to the normal skin, and analyze a lesion from the chromatic point of view. The theoretical reasons of interest are to have an objective method that is easy to standardize and reliably repeatable and to be able to analyze details not perceivable by the human eye. If the same technic are used in the evaluation of histologic characteristics of the lesions, a chance of making much more sophisticated clinicopathologic correlations will be available. The system needs to be improved at the technical level so that the response time of acquisition of the digitized images is shortened by the use of a digital television camera and the development of new computer programs to be run on a small computer. Evaluation of the system's sensitivity and specificity and an adequate clinical trial are needed.