  Dermoscopy is a non-invasive skin imaging technique, which permits
visualization of features of pigmented melanocytic neoplasms that are not
discernable by examination with the naked eye. One of the most important
features for the diagnosis of melanoma in dermoscopy images is the blue-white
veil (irregular, structureless areas of confluent blue pigmentation with an
overlying white "ground-glass" film). In this article, we present a machine
learning approach to the detection of blue-white veil and related structures in
dermoscopy images. The method involves contextual pixel classification using a
decision tree classifier. The percentage of blue-white areas detected in a
lesion combined with a simple shape descriptor yielded a sensitivity of 69.35%
and a specificity of 89.97% on a set of 545 dermoscopy images. The sensitivity
rises to 78.20% for detection of blue veil in those cases where it is a primary
feature for melanoma recognition.
