Cascaded Hough Transform-Based Hair Mask Generation and Harmonic Inpainting for Automated Hair Removal from Dermoscopy Images.

Restoring information obstructed by hair is one of the main issues for the accurate analysis and segmentation of skin images. For retrieving pixels obstructed by hair, the proposed system converts dermoscopy images into the L*a*b* color space, then principal component analysis (PCA) is applied to produce grayscale images. Afterward, the contrast-limited adaptive histogram equalization (CLAHE) and the average filter are implemented to enhance the grayscale image. Subsequently, the binary image is generated using the iterative thresholding method. After that, the Hough transform (HT) is applied to each image block to generate the hair mask. Finally, the hair pixels are removed by harmonic inpainting. The performance of the proposed automated hair removal was evaluated by applying the proposed system to the International Skin Imaging Collaboration (ISIC) dermoscopy dataset as well as to clinical images. Six performance evaluation metrics were measured, namely the mean squared error (MSE), the peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR), the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), the structural similarity index (SSIM), the universal quality image index (UQI), and the correlation (C). Using the clinical dataset, the system achieved MSE, PSNR, SNR, SSIM, UQI, and C values of 34.7957, 66.98, 42.39, 0.9813, 0.9801, and 0.9985, respectively. The results demonstrated that the proposed system could satisfy the medical diagnostic requirements and achieve the best performance compared to the state-of-art.

A comparative study of intralesional injection of Candida albicans antigen, bleomycin and 5-fluorouracil for treatment of plane warts.

BACKGROUND: Several therapeutic modalities for the treatment of verruca plana (VP) are available, but none has achieved complete cure in all cases with associated risk of side effects. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate efficacy and safety of intralesional injection of Candida albicans (C. albican) antigen, bleomycin and 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) in treatment of VP. METHODS: Sixty patients with VP were randomly divided into three equal groups who were treated using C. albicans antigen, bleomycin or 5- FU injections every 2 weeks till complete clearance of the lesions or for a maximum of four sessions and followed up for additional 8 weeks. RESULTS: A statistically significant higher incidence of complete response was achieved with bleomycin (85%) than C. albicans antigen (60%) which was higher than 5-FU (45%) with a significantly less number of required sessions to achieve best results with bleomycin and candida antigen than 5-FU. CONCLUSIONS: Candida albicans antigen, bleomycin and 5-FU are helpful modalities for treatment of VP. Bleomycin was the most effective, followed by C. albicans antigen then 5-FU (least effective). Single injection site, clearance of distant warts and decreased incidence of new lesion development - in situ or elsewhere - are additional merits of C. albicans immunotherapy. These modalities are cheap with only transient adverse effects.

Platelet-poor plasma gel vs platelet-rich plasma for infraorbital rejuvenation: A clinical and dermoscopic comparative study.

Infraorbital dark circles and tear trough deformity are considered common aesthetic problems. Numerous therapeutic modalities have been suggested with variable outcomes. The aim of this study was to compare the efficacy of platelet-poor plasma (PPP) gel vs platelet-rich plasma (PRP) in infraorbital rejuvenation. A total of 68 females presented with dark circles and/or tear trough deformity were recruited and treated by PPP gel injection in the right infraorbital region (Group A) and PRP injection in the left infraorbital region (Group B). They received three treatment sessions at 2-week interval, and followed up monthly for 3 months. They were evaluated clinically and dermoscopically before treatment and at the end of follow-up period. Both groups showed significant clinical improvements proved by significant reduction of degree of hyperpigmentation and tear trough rating scale. Obviously, more significant clinical and dermoscopic improvements were observed in Group A than Group B. Therefore, it could be concluded that both PPP gel and PRP were clinically effective procedures for aesthetic improvement of infraorbital region. Moreover, PPP gel seems to be significantly more effective than PRP as a therapeutic modality.