Automatic psoriasis lesion segmentation in two-dimensional skin images using multiscale superpixel clustering

Automatic Segmentation of Psoriasis Skin Images Using Adaptive Chimp Optimization Algorithm-Based CNN

Psoriasis is a severe skin disease that is surveyed outwardly by dermatologists. In recent years, computer vision is the major solution for diagnosing the psoriasis skin disease by segmenting the infected skin images. Besides, many researchers had presented efficient machine learning techniques for segmenting the psoriasis skin images. Nevertheless, accuracy and time consumption of the model are further to be improved. Thus, in this work, we present adaptive chimp optimization algorithm (AChOA)-based convolutional neural network (CNN) which is introduced for automatic segmentation of psoriasis skin images. After pre-processing, the input images are segmented using AChOA-CNN model where weight and bias values of CNN are optimized with the AChOA. The search ability of ChOA is enhanced by adapting the chaotic sequence based on tent map. At final, from the segmented output images, artifacts are removed by applying the threshold module. From the simulation, we attain 97% of accuracy.

A survey on the utilization of Superpixel image for clustering based image segmentation

Superpixel become increasingly popular in image segmentation field as it greatly helps image segmentation techniques to segment the region of interest accurately in noisy environment and also reduces the computation effort to a great extent. However, selection of proper superpixel generation techniques and superpixel image segmentation techniques play a very crucial role in the domain of different kinds of image segmentation. Clustering is a well-accepted image segmentation technique and proved their effective performance over various image segmentation field. Therefore, this study presents an up-to-date survey on the employment of superpixel image in combined with clustering techniques for the various image segmentation. The contribution of the survey has four parts namely (i) overview of superpixel image generation techniques, (ii) clustering techniques especially efficient partitional clustering techniques, their issues and overcoming strategies, (iii) Review of superpixel combined with clustering strategies exist in literature for various image segmentation, (iv) lastly, the comparative study among superpixel combined with partitional clustering techniques has been performed over oral pathology and leaf images to find out the efficacy of the combination of superpixel and partitional clustering approaches. Our evaluations and observation provide in-depth understanding of several superpixel generation strategies and how they apply to the partitional clustering method.

A survey, review, and future trends of skin lesion segmentation and classification

The Computer-aided Diagnosis or Detection (CAD) approach for skin lesion analysis is an emerging field of research that has the potential to alleviate the burden and cost of skin cancer screening. Researchers have recently indicated increasing interest in developing such CAD systems, with the intention of providing a user-friendly tool to dermatologists to reduce the challenges encountered or associated with manual inspection. This article aims to provide a comprehensive literature survey and review of a total of 594 publications (356 for skin lesion segmentation and 238 for skin lesion classification) published between 2011 and 2022. These articles are analyzed and summarized in a number of different ways to contribute vital information regarding the methods for the development of CAD systems. These ways include: relevant and essential definitions and theories, input data (dataset utilization, preprocessing, augmentations, and fixing imbalance problems), method configuration (techniques, architectures, module frameworks, and losses), training tactics (hyperparameter settings), and evaluation criteria. We intend to investigate a variety of performance-enhancing approaches, including ensemble and post-processing. We also discuss these dimensions to reveal their current trends based on utilization frequencies. In addition, we highlight the primary difficulties associated with evaluating skin lesion segmentation and classification systems using minimal datasets, as well as the potential solutions to these difficulties. Findings, recommendations, and trends are disclosed to inform future research on developing an automated and robust CAD system for skin lesion analysis.

Deep Learning Application for Effective Classification of Different Types of Psoriasis

Psoriasis is a chronic inflammatory skin disorder mediated by the immune response that affects a large number of people. According to latest worldwide statistics, 125 million individuals are suffering from psoriasis. Deep learning techniques have demonstrated success in the prediction of skin diseases and can also lead to the classification of different types of psoriasis. Hence, we propose a deep learning-based application for effective classification of five types of psoriasis namely, plaque, guttate, inverse, pustular, and erythrodermic as well as the prediction of normal skin. We used 172 images of normal skin from the BFL NTU dataset and 301 images of psoriasis from the Dermnet dataset. The input sample images underwent image preprocessing including data augmentation, enhancement, and segmentation which was followed by color, texture, and shape feature extraction. Two deep learning algorithms of convolutional neural network (CNN) and long short-term memory (LSTM) were applied with the classification models being trained with 80% of the images. The reported accuracies of CNN and LSTM are 84.2% and 72.3%, respectively. A paired sample T-test exhibited significant differences between the accuracies generated by the two deep learning algorithms with a $p<0.001$ . The accuracies reported from this study demonstrate potential of this deep learning application to be applied to other areas of dermatology for better prediction.

Optimization of psoriasis assessment system based on patch images

Psoriasis is a chronic inflammatory skin disease that occurs in various forms throughout the body and is associated with certain conditions such as heart disease, diabetes, and depression. The psoriasis area severity index (PASI) score, a tool used to evaluate the severity of psoriasis, is currently used in clinical trials and clinical research. The determination of severity is based on the subjective judgment of the clinician. Thus, the disease evaluation deviations are induced. Therefore, we propose optimal algorithms that can effectively segment the lesion area and classify the severity. In addition, a new dataset on psoriasis was built, including patch images of erythema and scaling. We performed psoriasis lesion segmentation and classified the disease severity. In addition, we evaluated the best-performing segmentation method and classifier and analyzed features that are highly related to the severity of psoriasis. In conclusion, we presented the optimal techniques for evaluating the severity of psoriasis. Our newly constructed dataset improved the generalization performance of psoriasis diagnosis and evaluation. It proposed an optimal system for specific evaluation indicators of the disease and a quantitative PASI scoring method. The proposed system can help to evaluate the severity of localized psoriasis more accurately.

Automated psoriasis lesion segmentation from unconstrained environment using residual U-Net with transfer learning

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE

The automatic segmentation of psoriasis lesions from digital images is a challenging task due to the unconstrained imaging environment and non-uniform background. Existing conventional or machine learning-based image processing methods for automatic psoriasis lesion segmentation have several limitations, such as dependency on manual features, human intervention, less and unreliable performance with an increase in data, manual pre-processing steps for removal of background or other artifacts, etc. METHODS: In this paper, we propose a fully automatic approach based on a deep learning model using the transfer learning paradigm for the segmentation of psoriasis lesions from the digital images of different body regions of the psoriasis patients. The proposed model is based on U-Net architecture whose encoder path utilizes a pre-trained residual network model as a backbone. The proposed model is retrained with a self-prepared psoriasis dataset and corresponding segmentation annotation of the lesion.

RESULTS

The performance of the proposed method is evaluated using a five-fold cross-validation technique. The proposed method achieves an average Dice Similarity Index of 0.948 and Jaccard Index of 0.901 for the intended task. The transfer learning provides an improvement in the segmentation performance of about 4.4% and 7.6% in Dice Similarity Index and Jaccard Index metric respectively, as compared to the training of the proposed model from scratch.

CONCLUSIONS

An extensive comparative analysis with the state-of-the-art segmentation models and existing literature validates the promising performance of the proposed framework. Hence, our proposed method will provide a basis for an objective area assessment of psoriasis lesions.

Artificial intelligence in dermatology and healthcare: An overview

Many aspects of our life are affected by technology. One of the most discussed advancements of modern technologies is artificial intelligence. It involves computational methods which in some way mimic the human thought process. Just like other branches, the medical field also has come under the ambit of artificial intelligence. Almost every field in medicine has been touched by its effect in one way or the other. Prominent among them are medical diagnosis, medical statistics, robotics, and human biology. Medical imaging is one of the foremost specialties with artificial intelligence applications, wherein deep learning methods like artificial neural networks are commonly used. artificial intelligence application in dermatology was initially restricted to the analysis of melanoma and pigmentary skin lesions, has now expanded and covers many dermatoses. Though the applications of artificial intelligence are ever increasing, large data requirements, interpretation of data and ethical concerns are some of its limitations in the present day.

Machine Learning Applications in the Evaluation and Management of Psoriasis: A Systematic Review

Background

Machine learning (ML), a subset of artificial intelligence (AI) that aims to teach machines to automatically learn tasks by inferring patterns from data, holds significant promise to aid psoriasis care. Applications include evaluation of skin images for screening and diagnosis as well as clinical management including treatment and complication prediction.

Objective

To summarize literature on ML applications to psoriasis evaluation and management and to discuss challenges and opportunities for future advances.

Methods

We searched MEDLINE, Google Scholar, ACM Digital Library, and IEEE Xplore for peer-reviewed publications published in English through December 1, 2019. Our search queries identified publications with any of the 10 computing-related keywords and "psoriasis" in the title and/or abstract.

Results

Thirty-three studies were identified. Articles were organized by topic and synthesized as evaluation- or management-focused articles covering 5 content categories: (A) Evaluation using skin images: (1) identification and differential diagnosis of psoriasis lesions, (2) lesion segmentation, and (3) lesion severity and area scoring; (B) clinical management: (1) prediction of complications and (2) treatment.

Conclusion

Machine learning has significant potential to aid psoriasis evaluation and management. Current topics popular in ML research on psoriasis are the evaluation of medical images, prediction of complications, and treatment discovery. For patients to derive the greatest benefit from ML advancements, it is helpful for dermatologists to have an understanding of ML and how it can effectively aid their assessments and decision-making.

Automatic Scale Severity Assessment Method in Psoriasis Skin Images Using Local Descriptors

Psoriasis is a chronic skin condition. Its clinical assessment involves four measures: erythema, scales, induration, and area. In this paper, we introduce a scale severity scoring framework for two-dimensional psoriasis skin images. Specifically, we leverage the bag-of-visual words (BoVWs) model for lesion feature extraction using superpixels as key points. BoVWs model is based on building a vocabulary with specific number of words (i.e., codebook size) by using a clustering algorithm with some local features extracted from a constructed set of key points. This is followed by three-class machine learning classifiers for scale scoring using support vector machine (SVM) and random forest. Besides, we examine eight different local color and texture descriptors, namely color histogram, local binary patterns, edge histogram descriptor, color layout descriptor, scalable color descriptor, color and edge directivity descriptor (CEDD), fuzzy color and texture histogram, and brightness and texture directionality histogram. Further, the selection of codebook and superpixel sizes are studied intensively. A psoriasis image set, consisting of 96 images, is used in this study. The conducted experiments show that color descriptors have the highest performance measures for scale severity scoring. This is followed by the combined color and texture descriptors, whereas texture-based descriptors come last. Moreover, K-means algorithm shows better results in vocabulary building than Gaussian mixed model, in terms of accuracy and computations time. Finally, the proposed method yields a scale severity scoring accuracy of 80.81% using the following setup: a superpixel of size [Formula: see text], a combined color and texture descriptor (i.e., CEDD), a constructed codebook of size 128 using K-means, and SVM for scale scoring.