Immunofluorescence and confocal microscopy for ex‐vivo diagnosis of melanocytic and non‐melanocytic skin tumors: A pilot study

Abstract

The use of fluorescent-labeled antibodies in ex-vivo CLSM is possible and could improve intraoperative diagnostics of skin tumors.

Simple 3‐criteria‐based ex vivo confocal diagnosis of basal cell carcinoma

“…In order to maintain its high standards, each step of the process should be as simple and clear as possible not only to experts, but also to novice Mohs fellows. Fast acquisition and evaluation of the tissue samples are the most important advantages of ex vivo CLSM . Previously it has been shown that in contrast to the traditional processing of Mohs frozen sections, ex vivo CLSM is less labor intensive, less time consuming, and less expensive .…”

“…The acquisition time of Vivascope 2500 is less than 7 minutes. The device together with the examination steps have also been described in previously published studies by the working group .…”

“…The selection of confocal variables was based on the preliminary ex vivo CLSM and histological knowledge and on the study of published data. Confocal features of BCC have been previously described in various studies . For the study purposes, the recently described confocal features by Bennàssar et al were simplified and modified .…”

“…Within these thick tissue sections additional optical sectioning of the specimen is possible and allows the examination of the tissue without any damage . ex vivo CLSM examination has been described so far in healthy skin , melanoma , eccrine syringomatous carcinoma , mammary and extramammary Paget's disease ,squamous cell carcinoma , foreign body reactions and in ophthalmology .…”

“…The diagnosis of BCC seems to be the most frequent indication for ex vivo CLSM. Until now it has been examined with the use of ex vivo CLSM in several studies . In all of them, the researchers referred to the histological way of tumor classification and focused on the 3 most frequent BCC subtypes—superficial, nodular and infiltrating.…”