A non-invasive tool for skin disease diagnosis would be a useful clinicaladjunct. The purpose of this study wasto determine whether visible/near-infrared spectroscopy can be used to non-invasively characterize skin diseases. In-vivo visible- andnear-infrared spectra (400-2500 nm) of skin neoplasms (actinic keratoses,basal cell carcinomata, banal common acquiredmelanocytic nevi, dysplastic melanocytic nevi, actinic lentigines andseborrheic keratoses) were collected by placing a fiber opticprobe on the skin. Paired t-tests, repeated measures analysis of variance andlinear discriminant analysis were used to determinewhether significant spectral differences existed and whether spectra could beclassified according to lesion type. Paired t-tests showedsignificant differences (p 0.05) between normal skin and skin lesions inseveral areas of the visible/near-infrared spectrum. Inaddition, significant differences were found between the lesion groups byanalysis of variance. Linear discriminant analysis classifiedspectra from benign lesions compared to pre-malignant or malignant lesionswith high accuracy. Visible/near-infrared spectroscopyis a promising non-invasive technique for the screening of skin diseases.
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