Single probe light reflectance spectroscopy and parameter spectrum feature extraction in experimental skin cancer detection and classification.

Skin cancer, an anomalous development of skin cells in the epidermis, is among the most common types of cancer worldwide. Because of its clinical importance and to improve early diagnosis and patient management, there is an urgent need to develop noninvasive, accurate medical diagnostic tools. To this aim, light reflectance spectroscopy over the visible and near-infrared spectral range (400-1000 nm) based on a single-fiber six-around-one optical probe was applied to extract nine features used for diagnostics. These features include skewness, entropy, energy, kurtosis, scattering amplitude, and others, and are spread over each of four different spectral signatures, namely, light reflectance, absorbance, scattering profile approximation, and absorption/scattering ratio. Our preliminary studies focused on 11 adult patients with diagnoses of malignant melanoma (n = 4), basal cell carcinoma (n = 5), and squamous cell carcinoma (n = 2) in a variety of locations on the body. Measurements were taken first in vivo before surgery, at the site of the lesion and from healthy skin of the same patient, and ex vivo after surgical excision, where the lesion was rinsed in saline solution and measurements of the reflected light from the "inside" facing plane of the tissue were taken in the same manner. Overall, experimental results demonstrate that by examining a variety of wavebands, features, and statistical metrics, we can detect and distinguish cancer from normal tissue and different cancer subtypes. Nevertheless, discrepancies in results between in vivo and ex vivo tissue were observed and explanations for these discrepancies are discussed.

Epidemiology of Burn Wounds Arriving to a Level 1 Trauma Center in Israel.

Burn injuries have grave consequences for patients and impose a heavy economic burden on healthcare services. Studies on the epidemiology of burn injury in Israel are sparse and outdated, and improved understanding of current trends can help experts plan prevention campaigns and design effective treatment paradigms. This study sought to assess the background, clinical, and treatment characteristics of adult patients admitted with burn injury to a level 1 trauma center in Israel in 2005 to 2017. Data were retrospectively retrieved from the hard copy and electronic files as follows: patient sex and age; burn type, degree, and etiology; percentage total BSA (%TBSA) affected; and type of treatment and length of hospital stay (LOS). The cohort included 734 patients of mean age 41.79 years and a male-to-female ratio of 1.8:1. Thermal factors, particularly hot liquids, were the most common cause; second-degree burns were the most common. Mean %TBSA was 5.39%; mean LOS was 11.81 days; and mean LOS/%TBSA was 4.65. Advanced dressings alone yielded satisfactory outcome in 74.2% of patients. The relatively younger patient age and male predominance of our cohort were in line with published findings. The LOS was similar to previous studies in Israel but lower than in Europe. The LOS/%TBSA was higher than in the literature, with a decrease over time suggesting an increased effectiveness of treatment. There appears to be a decline in the rate of surgery for burn injury and increased expertise in the use of advanced dressings. National prevention campaigns should focus on scalds rather than flame-induced burns.