APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR IMAGING AND CLASSIFYING LESIONS

摘要

A method and apparatus for monitoring a region of a body surface. The apparatus includes means for recording (160) first and subsequent multispectral digital images of the surface including the monitored region. First and subsequent images are high magnification images which can be recorded at low magnification. Diagnostically useful classifications (324) of pigmentes skin lesions are formed using a database (326) containing quantitatively extracted features from images recorded for a plurality of skin lesions, and correlating the features from each such lesion in the database with the medical history of the skin lesion from which the image was recorded. A diagnosis of premelanomatous or early melanomatous condition can be made by using the apparatus to characterize a surface region including a skin lesion and comparing lesion features with features of lesions previously stored in the database.