Skip to main content

Segmentation of Erythema from Skin Photographs for Assisted Diagnosis in Allergology

  • Conference paper

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNIP,volume 3687))

Abstract

More than 2 people out of 10 suffer from allergies, which can take various forms, from eczema to anaphylactic reactions with possible lethal consequences. Diagnosis is achieved through so-called “prick-tests” or IDR (intra-dermo-reaction): the injection of a small quantity of substances suspected to cause the allergic manifestation induces an erythema, the size of which is a useful indicator for the diagnosis. The manual surface measurement is time-consuming and inaccurate. This article presents a method for the semi-automatic measurement of the erythema from a photograph of the skin, taken in such conditions that lighting problems are minimized. The method is based on region growing and takes advantage of the most significant color spaces; the Lab space appears to be the best suited. It was tested on nearly 100 images, taken by various operators, on patients with various skin pigmentations; it gave promising results and proved to be robust.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Buying options

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD   109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  1. Nischik, M., Forster, C.: Analysis of Skin Erythema Using True-Color Images. IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging 16(6), 711–716 (1997)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Kopola, H., Lahti, A., Myllyla, R., Hannuksela, M.: Two-channel fiber optic skin erythema meter. Optical Engineering 32, 222–226 (1993)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Dawson, J.B., Barker, D.J., et al.: A theoretical and experimental study of light absorption and scattering by in-vivo skin. Phys. Med. Biol. 25(4), 695–709 (1980)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Ferguson-Pell, M., Hagisawa, S.: An empirical technique to compensate for melanin when monitoring skin microcirculation using reflectance spectrophotometry. Med. Eng. Physics 17(2), 104–110 (1995)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Hajizadeh-Saffar, M., Feather, J.W., Dawson, J.B.: An investigation of factors affecting the accuracy of in vivo measurement of skin pigments by reflectance spectrophotometry. Phys. Med. Biol. 35(9), 1301–1315 (1990)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Diffey, B.L., Farr, P.M.: Quantitative aspects of ultraviolet erythema. Clin. Phys. Physiol. Meas. 12(4), 311–325 (1991)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Riordan, B., Sprigle, S., Linden, M.: Testing the validity of erythema detection algorithms. Journal of Rehabilitation Research and Development 38(1) (January/February 2001)

    Google Scholar 

  8. Seidenari, S., Belletti, B.: The Quantification of Patch Test Responses: A Comparison Between Echographic and Colorimetric Methods. Acta. Derm. Venerol. 78, 364–366 (1998)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Fullerton, A., Fischer, T., et al.: Guidelines for the Measurement of Skin Color and Erythema. Contact Dermatitis 35, 1–10 (1996)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Weatherall, I.L., Coombs, B.D.: Skin Color Measurements in Terms of Cielab Color Space Values. Journal of Investigative Dermatology 99, 468–473 (1992)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Cocquerez, J.-P., Philipp, S.: Analyse d’images: filtrage et segmentation. Masson (1995)

    Google Scholar 

  12. Maître, H.: Le traitement des images. Lavoisier (2003)

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2005 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this paper

Cite this paper

Roullot, E., Autegarden, JE., Devriendt, P., Leynadier, F. (2005). Segmentation of Erythema from Skin Photographs for Assisted Diagnosis in Allergology. In: Singh, S., Singh, M., Apte, C., Perner, P. (eds) Pattern Recognition and Image Analysis. ICAPR 2005. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 3687. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/11552499_83

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/11552499_83

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-28833-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-31999-3

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics