Statistical analysis of ultrasound echo for skin lesions classification

Propagation of ultrasonic waves in the tissue is sensitive to the alternation of tissue composition and structure.. This paper presents the classification of healthy skin and skin lesions (basal cell carcinoma (BCC)) based on statistic parameters of the envelope of echosignal. The statistics of envelope of the ultrasonic signal was modeled using Rayleigh and non-Rayleigh (the K-distribution) statistics. Furthermore the characteristic parameter of K-distribution, the effective number of scaterrers (M) was investigated. Comparison of the results obtained for region of the skin where the BCC was diagnosed and the regions of healthy skin has shown differences in the values of M parameter. These results indicate that this parameter has the potential for extracting information useful for characterizing skin lesions.