Visia machine

[SteveE]

An article on the Visia machine, which is used in a dermatologist's office. It scans the face in visible, cross polar, and UV to evaluate various skin conditions. The results are then used by the doctor for diagnosis and treatment recommendations.

 

https://www.cnet.com...en-skin-damage/

[Cadmium]

SteveE, Thanks for the link. Very interesting.

Make sure to watch the little video.

[dabateman]

Interesting,

I do think the actual science is still in early stages there. I don't think you can say the dark spots are or aren't damage to your face.

I honestly think more sagging results from resting your face on your hand, like on a desk. Over the years, I see that pattern match up on people. People pull on there face more than they realize and I think that is the true cause.

Not to say UV doesn't cause damage, that is clear, but this may not imply the true story.

[Andy Perrin]

Also, I hate that UV portraiture is getting this bad rap that will be very hard to shake now.

[JMC]

I've worked with Visia system for years in different jobs, and there is a huge amount of good science which has gone into their development. However there is a lot of misunderstanding in the industry which uses them about what they can and can't do and even how they work.

 

The 'UV' images they collect aren't UV reflection. The Visia uses a normal camera, and the UV images are UV fluorescence. They then look at the blue channel of the fluorescence image and use that to determine the position of hyper-pigmented spots. I find it worrying, but even in the industry now, folks often do not know what they are imaging. I recently had to contact the author of a paper who had used a Visia system for imaging sunscreens, because throughout the whole article it wasn't clear whether they thought they were doing UV reflectance or UV fluorescence imaging with the system. On speaking with them, they said they were using an un-modified Visia system so it must be fluorescence.

 

Unfortunately marketing and journalist hype often runs these types of articles, and the subtleties of the method get lost for want of a quick headline or shocking image.

 

David. Between 60 and 80% of what we see as aging (including sagging) on sun exposed skin is due to UV damage and the rest is chronological. There's a very well known image of a truck driver that had spent over 20 years with sun on one side of the face through the truck window. The UVA exposure resulted in the sagging on the sun exposed side of the face. It's been in loads of newspaper articles, but if i can find it I'll dig out the original academic article. Of course we need some sun as well - without it we don't make Vitamin D. As with all things in life a balance is needed.

[dabateman]

Jonathan,

I think these are the relavent links:

 

https://www.skincancer.org/publications/sun-and-skin-news/summer-2010-27-2/driving-linked

 

https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMicm1104059

 

I do find it interesting that they report one 28 year driver, 69 years old. Shouldn't there be more reports?

But the first link places it at 53% on left side for the USA. That to me sounds like chance.

 

Doe Britain have any right side of face cases?

That would make it more conclusive.

 

Only 3% increase for USA, seems way too low. We are a driving country. Someplaces you have to drive and mostly only 1 person in the car. So frequency of the window on the left is extremely high.

[JMC]

David,

 

Yes, the truck driver image was from the New England Journal of Medicine, and is often cited as a one person study, given the extreme nature of the effect. Also an extreme example of sun exposure, driving for a living.

 

In that other link you shared, there is more information further down. Specifically 74% of melanomas were on the left in the study population. These weren't necessarily people who drive for a living, so its not surprising it is less clear cut.

 

I'm sure John Dowdy can provide more info on this too.