Department of Dermatology, Guro Hospital, Korea University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
Department of Dermatology, Wonkwang University Hospital, Wonkwang University School of Medicine, Iksan, Republic of Korea.
Int J Hyperthermia. 2021;38(1):1462-1468. doi: 10.1080/02656736.2021.1986142.
Clinical differentiation between pigmented basal cell carcinoma (BCC) and seborrheic keratosis (SK) can sometimes be difficult. Noninvasive diagnostic technologies, such as thermal imaging, can be helpful in these situations. This study explored the use of dynamic thermal imaging (DTI), which records thermal images after the application of external thermal stimuli (heat or cold) for the differential diagnosis of pigmented BCC and SK.
Twenty-two patients with pigmented BCC and 15 patients with SK participated in this study. Dynamic thermal images of lesions (pigmented BCC or SK) and control sites (contralateral normal skin) were recorded after the heat and cold stimuli. Temperature changes in the region of interest (ROI) are plotted as a thermal response graph. After fitting an exponential equation to each thermal response graph, the rate constants were compared between groups (pigmented BCC versus control, SK versus control).
The thermal response graphs revealed that the average temperature of pigmented BCC showed faster thermal recovery to baseline than the control site. There was a significant difference in the rate constants of the fitted exponential equations between the pigmented BCCs and the control sites (<.001). However, we did not find a significantly different thermal recovery pattern between SK lesions and control sites.
DTI can be used as a diagnostic tool for distinguishing pigmented BCC from SK by comparing thermal recovery patterns between target lesions (pigmented BCC or SK) and the control site.
色素性基底细胞癌（BCC）和脂溢性角化病（SK）的临床鉴别有时较为困难。热成像等无创诊断技术在这种情况下可能会有所帮助。本研究探讨了动态热成像（DTI）在色素性 BCC 和 SK 鉴别诊断中的应用，该技术记录了施加外部热刺激（热或冷）后的热图像。
本研究纳入了 22 例色素性 BCC 患者和 15 例 SK 患者。在施加热和冷刺激后，记录病变（色素性 BCC 或 SK）和对照部位（对侧正常皮肤）的动态热图像。将感兴趣区域（ROI）的温度变化绘制为热响应图。对每个热响应图拟合指数方程后，比较组间（色素性 BCC 与对照、SK 与对照）的速率常数。
热响应图显示，色素性 BCC 的平均温度在热恢复到基线时比对照部位更快。色素性 BCC 与对照部位拟合的指数方程的速率常数存在显著差异（<.001）。然而，我们没有发现 SK 病变与对照部位之间的热恢复模式存在显著差异。
通过比较目标病变（色素性 BCC 或 SK）与对照部位之间的热恢复模式，DTI 可用于鉴别色素性 BCC 和 SK。
