Electrical impedance spectroscopy as a potential adjunct diagnostic tool for cutaneous melanoma

Abstract

Background: Previous studies have shown statistically significant differences in electrical impedance between various cutaneous lesions. Electrical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) may therefore be able to aid clinicians in differentiating between benign and malignant skin lesions. Objectives: The aim of the study was to develop a classification algorithm to distinguish between melanoma and benign lesions of the skin with a sensitivity of at least 98% and a specificity approximately 20 per cent higher than the diagnostic accuracy of dermatologists. Patients/Methods: A total of 1300 lesions were collected in a multicentre, prospective, non-randomized clinical trial from 19 centres around Europe. All lesions were excised and subsequently evaluated independently by a panel of three expert dermatopathologists. From the data two classification algorithms were developed and verified. Results: For the first classification algorithm, approximately 40% of the data were used for calibration and 60% for testing. The observed sensitivity for melanoma was 98.1% (101/103), non-melanoma skin cancer 100% (25/25) and dysplastic nevus

Evaluation of electrical impedance spectroscopy as an adjunct to dermoscopy in short-term monitoring of atypical melanocytic lesions

“…EIS measurements on AMLs showed lower specificity compared with previous studies on EIS [5–7]. This may be due to the fact that the inclusion criteria in this study were different and that the sample size was smaller.…”

“…The system measures bio-impedance of the skin at 35 different frequencies, logarithmically distributed from 1.0 kHz to 2.5 MHz, at four different depths utilizing 10 permutations. More exact details on how EIS measurements are performed have been published earlier [6,7]. …”

“…Nevisense ® (SciBase AB, Stockholm, Sweden) is a diagnostic tool based on electrical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) [5–7]. It measures tissue resistance by administering alternating electrical currents at various frequencies to the skin.…”

“…These different properties influence the ability of the tissue to conduct and store electricity and can influence the results of an EIS measurement [5]. Previous studies have resulted in an algorithm in which EIS scores in the range of 0–3 in the Nevisense ® system represent a negative predictive value (NPV, i.e., the probability that the lesion is not a melanoma) of 98%, and scores of 4–10 represent steadily increasing positive predictive values (PPVs) as shown in Table 1 [6,7]. EIS is approved for clinical use, but how the EIS score should be interpreted and used in clinical practice is still unclear.…”

Recent Advances in Diagnostic Technologies for Melanoma

“…In 2013, they reported that the system achieved sensitivity as high as 98.1% and speci city as high as 24.5% in a trial of 577 lesions including 103 melanomas [23]. Impedance measurement is generally lower in cost than optical measurement.…”