AN IMAGE BASED SYSTEM TO OBJECTIVELY SCORE THE DEGREE OF SCALING IN PSORIASIS LESIONS

• Main Author: MUHAMAD, AZMI
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: Universiti Teknologi Petronas 2006
• Subjects: TK Electrical engineering. Electronics Nuclear engineering
• Online Access: http://utpedia.utp.edu.my/6792/1/2006%20-%20AN%20IMAGE%20BASED%20SYSTEM%20TO%20OBJECTIVELY%20SCORE%20THE%20DEGREE%20OF%20SCALING%20IN%20PSORIASIS%20LESIONS.pdf; http://utpedia.utp.edu.my/6792/

Skin diseases affect 20-30% of the population at any one time, seriously interfering with activities in 10%. Psoriasis is one of the most common skin diseases; it is non infectious, inflammatory disease of the skin. It is characterised by erythematous plaques with adherent silvery scales. There are known inherited genetic factors and several documented environmental factors that affect the clinical course of psoriasis. Men and women are equally affected and often seen between 15 to 15 years [l].The treatment of psoriasis requires the doctor to monitor the severity for each individual. They need to knowthe patient's condition either fully heals, moderate or bad. A standard parameter for measuring the severity and coverage of psoriasis is used; namely Psoriasis Area and Severity Index (PASI). The PASI has been used for more than ten years and it is widely use aroundthe world in the management of psoriasis. It is proved to be extremely effective in accessing psoriasis .Whilst it is not perfect, but it is the best method of assessment of psoriasis currently available [2]. This PASI have measure four variables which are the surface area of the psoriasis, the severity of Erythma(redness), the amount of scaling and the thickness of the plague. The surface area will be scored from 0 to 6 while the others will be scored from 0 to 4 depending on how much the percentage of psoriasis coverage and how severe the psoriasis is. Several problem are identified in current assessment of PASI, such problem are parameters measured are inaccurate, patient have to wait longer time for the result of further treatment and the evaluation in general performed on the base of clinical experience only. This project report focuses on the assessment of scaliness using a computerized system for use in PASI calculation -The system used is image processing toolbox that available in MATLAB 7.0. The designed system will help dermatologist to objectively score the degree of scaling in psoriasis lesions. The project requires the author to import the digital image of infected skin, analyze the image in MATLAB 7.0, and provide an accurate score for PASFs scaling parameter. The methods used are the grayscale conversion, edge detection technique, image segmentation and pixels percentage calculation. The final results are the individual PASI score together with his personal data display on graphical user interface (GUI).