Characterization of cutaneous cell carcinomas by ultrasound biomicroscopy

The potential of ultrasound biomicroscopy (UBM) images to evidence the alterations occurring in skin tissues affected by cutaneous carcinomas was studied. The histological patterns associated to these carcinomas can vary considerably between patients, involving diverse atypical tissue constituents which should be identified in UBM images, considering the perspective of applying this technique as a diagnostic tool. The study was conducted using in vitro fresh human tissue samples, obtained from biopsied volunteer patients. The UBM images were generated as in the conventional B-mode, and acquired with an experimental system working in a fundamental frequency of 45 MHz. Distinct tissues constituents, normal or pathologic, were identified in the UBM images by variations in the image brightness level, and could be observed in most of the studied cases. Moreover, the brightness characteristics associated to each tissue constituent seem to repeat along the different studied samples. Although the differentiation between the diverse structures was possible by a qualitative analysis, additional quantitative techniques (related to tissue acoustic, statistical and spectral properties) are been implemented, to improve the UBM diagnostic capability.