Fadzil M H Ahmad, Norashikin S, Suraiya H H, Nugroho H
Electrical and Electronic Engineering Department, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, Tronoh, Bandar Sri Iskander, Perak Darul Ridzuan, Malaysia.
J Med Eng Technol. 2009;33(2):101-9. doi: 10.1080/03091900802454459.
This paper describes an image analysis technique that objectively measures skin repigmentation for the assessment of therapeutic response in vitiligo treatments. Skin pigment disorders due to the abnormality of melanin production, such as vitiligo, cause irregular pale patches of skin. The therapeutic response to treatment is repigmentation of the skin. However the repigmentation process is very slow and is only observable after a few months of treatment. Currently, there is no objective method to assess the therapeutic response of skin pigment disorder treatment, particularly for vitiligo treatment. In this work, we apply principal component analysis followed by independent component analysis to represent digital skin images in terms of melanin and haemoglobin composition respectively. Vitiligo skin areas are identified as skin areas that lack melanin (non-melanin areas). Results obtained using the technique have been verified by dermatologists. Based on 20 patients, the proposed technique effectively monitored the progression of repigmentation over a shorter time period of six weeks and can thus be used to evaluate treatment efficacy objectively and more effectively.
本文描述了一种图像分析技术，该技术可客观测量皮肤色素再生情况，用于评估白癜风治疗中的治疗反应。由于黑色素生成异常导致的皮肤色素紊乱，如白癜风，会使皮肤出现不规则的淡色斑。治疗的反应是皮肤色素再生。然而，色素再生过程非常缓慢，只有在治疗几个月后才能观察到。目前，尚无客观方法来评估皮肤色素紊乱治疗，尤其是白癜风治疗的治疗反应。在这项工作中，我们先应用主成分分析，然后进行独立成分分析，分别根据黑色素和血红蛋白成分来表示数字皮肤图像。白癜风皮肤区域被识别为缺乏黑色素的皮肤区域（非黑色素区域）。使用该技术获得的结果已得到皮肤科医生的验证。基于20名患者，所提出的技术在六周的较短时间内有效监测了色素再生的进展，因此可用于更客观、更有效地评估治疗效果。
