Optimization of the thermographic inspection procedure for accurate detection of skin melanoma suspicion

This paper discusses a new strategy for dealing accurately with a diagnosis of skin melanoma. The technique used is the thermographic one that in recent years has been the subject of much attention by researchers, being non-invasive and capable of highlighting the metabolic activity of the skin lesion. The aim is to verify the accuracy and reliability of the diagnosis through the analysis for comparison of the thermal behavior of two skin areas, one affected by the lesion and the other healthy and placed in the vicinity of the first with similar epidermal characteristics. Here, we want to discuss the correctness of the thermographic technique used to date for this purpose and propose a more accurate procedure to establish the presence of an epidermal melanoma employing the same non-invasive technique. The authors define some rules to be observed in the analysis, by describing a measurement procedure that reduces the uncertainties. The technique proposed here is based on the accurate evaluation of the time constants of the responses to a thermal stress step of the inspected epidermal areas, the ill and the healthy ones. The experimental setup developed, and the first thermographic results detected are here presented.