Optical Coherence Tomography for Imaging of Skin and Skin Diseases

Abstract

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is an emerging imaging technology based on light reflection. It provides real-time images with up to 2-mm penetration into the skin and a resolution of approximately 10 microm. It is routinely used in ophthalmology. The normal skin and its appendages have been studied, as have many diseases. The method can provide accurate measures of epidermal and nail changes in normal tissue. Skin cancer and other tumors, as well as inflammatory diseases, have been studied and good agreement found between OCT images and histopathological architecture. OCT also allows noninvasive monitoring of morphologic changes in skin diseases and may have a particular role in the monitoring of medical treatment of nonmelanoma skin cancer. The technology is however still evolving and continued technological development will necessitate an ongoing evaluation of its diagnostic accuracy. Several technical solutions are being pursued to further improve the quality of the images and the data provided, and OCT is being integrated in multimodal imaging devices that would potentially be able to provide a quantum leap to the imaging of skin in vivo.

Microneedle characterisation: the need for universal acceptance criteria and GMP specifications when moving towards commercialisation

“…Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) can be described as the optical equivalent to ultrasound, which maps changes of reflected light from a biological tissue as a function of depth [5,71]. The ability of OCT to visualise depths of ̴ 2000 µm demonstrates this technique's superiority over confocal microscopy, which is only capable of penetrating to 200-250 µm depths.…”

Optical coherence tomography: its role in daily dermatological practice

“…Findings comparable to histology; follow-up controls [ 20 ] Blistering skin disorders Differentiation between intraepidermal and subepidermal blistering [ 21 ] Parasitosis Rapid detection of parasitic pathogens such as scabies and larva migrans; helps in distinguishing uncertain exanthema and differential diagnosis of scabies [ 22 ] Measuring skin when using topical treatments Assessment of skin atrophy (epidermis and dermis) in patients taking corticosteroids [ 23 ] …”

Backscattering spectroscopy for assessing skin tumor

“…For example, for melanoma the sensitivity is limited by 83% and the specificity by 80%. Thus, it was achieved the increase 7% for sensitivity and 5% for specificity in comparison with known methods [26]. The main reason for such enhancement of sensitivity and specificity is connected with better accuracy of two-dimensional phase space analysis and spectral normalization of optical indexes on their values in neighboring healthy skin, which exclude the influence of individual characteristics of skin associated with a sunburn or skin phenotype.…”