Background/purpose: Many aspects of the natural history of malignant melanoma (MM) are still unclear, specifically its appearance at onset and particularly how it changes in time. The purpose of our study was to retrospectively determine objective changes in melanoma over a 3-24-month observation period.
Materials and methods: Our study was carried out in two Italian dermatology centers. Digital dermoscopy analyzers (DB-Mips System) were used to retrospectively evaluate dermoscopic images of 59 MM (with no initial clinical aspects suggesting melanoma) under observation for 3-24 months. The analyzer evaluates 49 parameters grouped into four categories: geometries, colors, textures and islands of color. Multivariate analysis of variance for repeated measures was used to evaluate the statistical significance of the changes in the digital dermoscopy variables of melanomas.
Results: Within-lesion analysis indicated that melanomas increased in dimension (Area, Minimum, and Maximum Diameter), manifested greater disorganization of the internal components (Red, Green and Blue Multicomponent, Contrast, and Entropy) and increased in clusters of milky pink color (Light Red Area).
Conclusion: Analysis of the parameters of our model and statistical analysis enabled us to interpret/identify the most significant factors of melanoma modification, providing quantitative insights into the natural history of this cutaneous malignancy.
© 2010 John Wiley & Sons A/S.