The Additive Value of 3D Total Body Imaging for Sequential Monitoring of Skin Lesions: A Case Series

Abstract

<b><i>Background:</i></b> Timely diagnosis is the cornerstone of melanoma morbidity and mortality reduction. 2D total body photography and dermoscopy are routinely used to assist with early detection of skin malignancies. Polarized 3D total body photography is a novel technique that enables fast image acquisition of almost the entire skin surface. We aimed to determine the added value of 3D total body photography alongside dermoscopy for monitoring cutaneous lesions. <b><i>Methods:</i></b> Lesion images from high-risk individuals were assessed for long-term substantial changes via dermoscopy and 3D total body photography. Three case studies are presented demonstrating how 3D total body photography may enhance lesion analysis alongside traditional dermoscopy. <b><i>Results:</i></b> 3D total body photography can assist clinicians by presenting cutaneous lesions in their skin ecosystem, thereby providing additional clinical context and enabling a more holistic assessment to aid dermoscopy interpretation. For lesion cases where previous dermoscopy is unavailable, corresponding 3D images can substitute for baseline dermoscopy. Additionally, 3D total body photography is not susceptible to artificial stretch artefacts. <b><i>Conclusion:</i></b> 3D total body photography is valuable alongside dermoscopy for monitoring cutaneous lesions. Furthermore, it is capable of surveilling almost the entire skin surface, including areas not traditionally monitored by sequential imaging.

Study protocol for a randomised controlled trial to evaluate the use of melanoma surveillance photography to the Improve early detection of MelanomA in ultra-hiGh and high-risk patiEnts (the IMAGE trial)

“…Dermoscopy is associated with a 15-fold improvement in the odds of correctly diagnosing melanocytic lesions as melanoma compared to naked eye assessment [ 6 ]. The contribution of 2D or 3D imaging to improved diagnosis is as yet less well studied, but case studies indicate additive value [ 7 ].…”

Consumer views of melanoma early detection using 3D total‐body photography: cross‐sectional survey

“…Since 3D total‐body photography is a relatively novel dermatological imaging technique, 3,4,13 little is known about consumers' perceptions of the technology. A recent study by our group 14 explored participants' experiences of 3D total‐body photography over a 3‐year period, collecting participant feedback ( n = 149) at the halfway study timepoint (18‐months) and final study timepoint (36‐months).…”

Monitoring of Pigmented Skin Lesions Using 3D Whole Body Imaging

“…[57] [49] [36] [5] [24] ours 2D whole body photography Low-cost acquisition system 3D human reconstruction Clinical images used for detection Data-driven skin lesion detector Lesion mapped back on 3D body texture User Interface data management flag them for further examination. Nevertheless, such correlation methods that identify particular lesions of the patient's body that appear in images taken from different views and time are not well studied in the literature.…”

“…This technology can be used to provide context to single lesion dermoscopy images [29], facilitate long-term surveillance, and support the evaluation of raised lesions, as the 3D images can be viewed from multiple angles. This means that lesions are considered within the context of the surrounding skin, offering a more accurate overall assessment and diagnosis than dermoscopy images alone [24].…”

“…Although there exist numerous recent articles that demonstrated the benefits of 3D whole body photography [5,24,36], 3D human representation is obtained with expensive commercial systems such as VECTRA®WB360 (Canfield Scientific Inc) [13], which simultaneously captures 92 images, using them to reconstruct a 3D avatar. In contrast, we propose a low-cost mobile health pod equipped with AI based smart tools that can be repurposed from current clinician use case, to help researchers collect and curate data automatically from 3D human models as illustrated in Fig.…”