The goals of this work were investigation of pigmented skin lesions by the method of laser-induced fluorescence spectroscopy. Fluorescence spectra were obtained from malignant and benign skin lesions after excitation with nitrogen laser at 337 nm, namely: benign nevi, dysplastic nevi, malignant melanoma (MM), keratopapilloma, base-cell papilloma and base-cell carcinoma, as well as from healthy skin areas near to the lesion that were used posteriori to reveal changes between healthy and lesion skin spectra. Initially lesions were classified by ABCD-dermatscopic method. All suspicious lesions were excised and were investigated histologically. Spectrum of healthy skin consists of one main maximum at 470-500 nm spectral region and secondary maxima at in the regions round 400 and 440 nm. In the cases of nevi and melanoma significant decrease of fluorescence intensity, which correlated with the type of pigment lesion was observed. This reduction of the signal is related to the accumulation of melanin in the lesions that re-absorb strongly the fluorescence from native skin fluorophores in whole visible spectral region. In cases of papilloma and base-cell carcinoma an intensity decrease was also observed, related to accumulation of pigments in these cutaneous lesions. An relative increase of the fluorescence peak at 440 nm were registered in the case of base-cell carcinoma, and appearance of green fluorescence, related to increase of keratin content in benign papilloma lesions were detected. The results, obtained in this investigation of the different pigment lesions could be used for better comprehension of the skin optical properties. The fluorescence spectroscopy of the human skin are very prominent for early diagnosis and differentiation of cutaneous diseases and gives a wide range of possibilities related to real-time determination of existing pathological condition.

Date Published: 22 April 2005
PDF: 5 pages
Proc. SPIE 5830, 13th International School on Quantum Electronics: Laser Physics and Applications, (22 April 2005); doi: 10.1117/12.618823

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 5830:
13th International School on Quantum Electronics: Laser Physics and Applications
Peter A. Atanasov; Sanka V. Gateva; Lachezar A. Avramov; Alexander A. Serafetinides, Editor(s)