Title:Fractal Analysis of Epithelial-Connective Tissue Interface in Basal Cell Carcinoma of the Skin
VOLUME: 8 ISSUE: 3
Author(s):Giorgio Bianciardi, Clelia Miracco, Stefano Lazzi and Pietro Luzi
Affiliation:Dipartimento Biotecnologie mediche, Università degli Studi di Siena, Via delle Scotte 6, 53100 Siena, Italy.
Keywords:Basal cell carcinoma, differential diagnosis, fractal analysis.
Abstract:This paper investigates the use of computerized fractal analysis for objective characterization of the complexity
of the epithelial-connective tissue interface in basal cell carcinoma and the ability of the technique to quantitatively
discriminate among different diagnostic categories. Tumor boundaries were extracted by means of image analysis. The
fractal dimension was calculated by using the box-counting method. The results showed that the shape of the boundaries
between epithelium and stroma is significantly more complex in infiltrative high risk tumors than in circumscribed low
risk ones (p<0.001), with 100% correct classifications. This study shows that the computerized fractal analysis of
epithelial-connective tissue interface in basal cell carcinomas can provide an accurate, quantitative, inexpensive technique
to help in tumor diagnosis.
