Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a noninvasive imaging method. Using infrared broadband light sources, images of superficial skin layers can be obtained in vivo and real time. In dermatology, OCT can be used for investigation of skin tumors and inflammatory skin diseases, for quantification of skin changes, and for evaluation of treatment effects
John Holmes, Chief executive officer an co-founder of Michelson Diagnostics, takes a look at how optical coherence tomography is starting to play an important role in dermatology.
Background Photodynamic therapy with methyl aminolaevulinate (MAL-PDT) is a widely used non-invasive treatment modality for non-melanoma skin cancer (NMSC). The outcome of MAL-PDT is usually primarily evaluated clinically. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a non-invasive imaging technology based on interferiometry. OCT has been proven to provide high accuracy in identifying NMSC lesions and performing thickness measurements of thin tumours. Objectives To describe the OCT morphology in in-vivo NMSC lesions during MAL-PDT treatment and to investigate the use of OCT in evaluating the response of MAL-PDT treated NMSC lesions Methods A total of 18 biopsy-proven basal cell carcinomas and actinic keratoses ...
Background Emerging tools for the diagnosis of skin cancer are non-invasive imaging devices that allow for skin visualization without biopsy. While the capabilities of non-invasive imaging tools are far-reaching, each varies in its resolution depth, image clarity, clinical applicability, accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity. Objective The objective of this review is to evaluate non-invasive imaging modalities, and examine their capabilities, conditions for use, clinical applications, and limitations. Materials and methods A literature review was conducted on Pubmed using the search term “non-invasive diagnostic imaging tools and skin”. Relevant citations suggested by Pubmed were included. Each non-invasive imaging tool evaluated was also ...
Using fingerprints as a method to identify an individual has been accepted in forensics since the 19 th century, and the fingerprint has become one of the most widely used biometric characteristics. Most of the modern fingerprint recognition systems are based on the print pattern of the finger surface and are not robust against spoof attaching. There may be problems where there are scars or cuts on fingertips. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a noncontact imaging technique which can capture high resolution, 3D images from within highly scattering biological tissues. There has been great interest to use OCT for fingerprint ...
Fractional photothermolysis induced by non-ablative fractional lasers (NAFLs) or ablative fractional lasers (AFLs) can remodel the skin, regenerate collagen, and remove tumor tissue. However, fractional laser treatments may result in severe side effects, and multiple treatments are required to achieve the expected outcome. Thus, the treatment outcome and downtime after fractional laser treatments are key issues to determine the following treatment strategy. In this study, an optical coherence tomography (OCT) system was implemented for in vivo studies of wound healing after NAFL and AFL treatments. According to the OCT scanning results, the laser-induced photothermolysis including volatilization and coagulation could be ...
The formation of burn-scar tissue in human skin profoundly alters, among other things, the structure of the dermis. We present a method to characterize dermal scar tissue by the measurement of the near-infrared attenuation coefficient using optical coherence tomography (OCT). To generate accurate en face parametric images of attenuation, we found it critical to first identify (using speckle decorrelation) and mask the tissue vasculature from the three-dimensional OCT data. The resulting attenuation coefficients in the vasculature-masked regions of the dermis of human burn-scar patients are lower in hypertrophic ( 3.8 ± 0.4 mm − 1 ) and normotrophic ( 4.2 ± 0.9 ...
Background and Objectives Port-wine stain (PWS) is a congenital, progressive vascular malformation of the dermis. The use of optical coherence tomography (OCT) for the characterization of blood vessels in PWS skin has been demonstrated by several groups. In the past few years, advances in OCT technology have greatly increased imaging speed. Sophisticated numerical algorithms have improved the sensitivity of Doppler OCT dramatically. These improvements have enabled the noninvasive, high-resolution, three-dimensional functional imaging of PWS skin. Here, we demonstrate high-resolution, three-dimensional, microvasculature imaging of PWS and normal skin using Doppler OCT technique. Study Design/Materials and Methods The OCT system uses ...
A major challenge for translating cell-based therapies is understanding the dynamics of cells and cell populations in complex in vivo environments. Intravital microscopy has shown great promise for directly visualizing cell behavior in vivo. However, current methods are limited to relatively short imaging times (hours), by ways to track cell and cell population dynamics over extended time-lapse periods (days to weeks to months), and by relatively few imaging contrast mechanisms that persist over extended investigations. We present technology to visualize and quantify complex, multifaceted dynamic changes in natural deformable skin over long time periods using novel multimodal imaging and a ...
Lesion biopsy is currently used to diagnose erythroplasia of Queyrat (EQ), a rare squamous cell carcinoma in situ of the glans penis, or to determine whether the cancer is invasive, although the results only apply to the area from which the biopsy is taken. In this case report, we illustrate for the first time the use of optical coherence tomography (OCT) in imaging the entire lesion in a patient with EQ. The results confirmed that the patient had in situ rather than invasive carcinoma. Consequently, non-invasive treatment with imiquimod 5%, a topical immunomodulator with antitumour and antiviral properties, was initiated ...
With great interest, we read the article of Mogensen and co-workers, which was published in this journal. 1 They studied 11 actinic keratoses and 23 basal cell carcinomas (< 2 mm thickness) using conventional optical coherence tomography (OCT, 20 μm lateral resolution) and 20-MHz ultrasound. OCT and 20-MHz ultrasound were compared with routine histology. The authors concluded that systematic comparison between mean OCT and 20-MHz ultrasound lesion thickness demonstrated that OCT is more accurate and less biased than 20-MHz ultrasound, even though both methods tended to overestimate the thickness of the lesion. Recently, high-definition OCT (HD-OCT) scanners have been developed providing ...
Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a non-invasive imaging modality that is transforming clinical diagnosis in dermatology and other medical fields. OCT provides a cross-sectional evaluation of the epidermis and dermis and allows in vivo imaging of skin collagen. Upregulated collagen content is a key feature of fibrotic skin diseases. These diseases are often managed by the practitioner’s subjective assessment of disease severity and response to therapies. The purpose of this review is to provide an overview of the principles of OCT and present available evidence on the ability of OCT to image skin collagen in vivo for the diagnosis ...
Purpose To explore the application of optical coherence tomography (OCT) imaging of basal cell carcinomas (BCC) and actinic keratosis (AK) before, during and after imiquimod treatment and the ability of OCT to predict treatment outcome. Methods The study subjects were 20 patients with biopsy-verified BCC (9) or AK (11). Patients were OCT-scanned before, after 1 and 4 weeks of imiquimod treatment and after 3 months. Lesions were identified clinically and with OCT. Thickness and morphology of the lesions were recorded at each visit. Any remaining lesions were biopsied at follow-up. Results Complete data sets were available for 16 patients (8 ...
A comparative study of physical, chemical, and combined enhancement of transdermal transport of optical clearing agents (OCAs) is presented. As a physical enhancer of diffusivity, ultrasound (US) with a frequency 1 MHz and a power 1.1 W in the continuous mode was used, and dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) was used as a chemical enhancer. OCA (glycerol and polyethylene glycol-400 in equal proportion) was topically applied to the rat skin in vivo as alone or as together with the enhancers. Monitoring of skin optical clearing was implemented using an optical coherence tomography. The results have shown that the attenuation coefficient of ...
Tissue characterization method in optical coherence tomography (OCT) for in situ histology of soft tissues is presented and demonstrated for mice skin. OCT allows direct noninvasive visualization of subsurface anatomy. It is currently used for in situ investigation of lesions in skin, vessels, retinal layers, oral, and bronchial cavitities. Although OCT images present high resolution information about tissue morphology, reporting requires a reader experienced in interpretation of the images, viz., identification of anatomical layers and structures constituting the organ based on OCT speckle appearance. Our approach characterizes tissues through transfer learning of tissue energy interaction statistical physics models of ballistic ...
Purpose To explore the application of optical coherence tomography (OCT) imaging of basal cell carcinomas (BCC) and actinic keratosis (AK) before, during and after imiquimod treatment and the ability of OCT to predict treatment outcome. Methods The study subjects were 20 patients with biopsy-verified BCC (9) or AK (11). Patients were OCT-scanned before, after 1 and 4 weeks of imiquimod treatment and after 3 months. Lesions were identified clinically and with OCT. Thickness and morphology of the lesions were recorded at each visit. Any remaining lesions were biopsied at follow-up. Results Complete data sets were available for 16 patients (8 ...
Physical Sciences Incorporated Received a 2013 NIH Grant for $123,797 Combined RCM and PS-OCT for Skin Cancer Imaging. The principal investigator is Mircea Mujat. The program began in 2012 and ends in 2014. Below is a summary of the work. Physical Sciences, Inc. (PSI), in collaboration with Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) and Lucid, Inc., proposes to investigate the use of combined reflectance confocal microscopy- polarization sensitive optical coherence tomography (RCM-PSOCT) for in vivo diagnosis of skin cancers. Both RCM and OCT are powerful technologies with proven success in human skin imaging. While RCM provides en face images ...
Background: Psoriatic nail disease is increasingly recognised to be of major clinical and research relevance. Clinical assessment remains the current gold standard for its evaluation. Objective: We compared optical coherence tomography (OCT) and ultrasound (US) for nail disease assessment in psoriatic disease. Methods: 18 patients with at least one involved nail and 12 healthy controls were scanned using OCT; psoriatic patients also had an US scan (using a linear probe at 9-14 MHz). Nail and contour abnormalities were documented. Clinical onychopathy was scored independently using the modified Nail Psoriasis Severity Index. Results: Among 180 nails, 67.8% had clinical findings ...
Optical coherence tomography (OCT) has developed rapidly since its first realisation in medicine and is currently an emerging technology in the diagnosis of skin disease. OCT is an interferometric technique that detects reflected and backscattered light from tissue and is often described as the optical analogue to ultrasound. The inherent safety of the technology allows for in vivo use of OCT in patients. The main strength of OCT is the depth resolution. In dermatology, most OCT research has turned on non-melanoma skin cancer (NMSC) and non-invasive monitoring of morphological changes in a number of skin diseases based on pattern recognition ...
Thanks to Dr. Tanja Maier from the Ludwig Maximilian University (LMU) in Munich a dedicated high-quality workshop took place around Agfa HealthCare’s me first technology, called High-Definition Optical Coherence Tomography (HD-OCT), The lecture from Dr. Maier was focused on non-melanoma skin cancers. A SKINTELL demonstration was given and all kinds of images from various skin diseases were discussed. The attendees took the opportunity to use this non-invasive technology and to take images themselves. Our booth received great interest and in this regard many demonstrations were given to dermatologists and young, upcoming dermatologists. During this congress that took place from ...
Background: An evaluation of wound mechanics is crucial in reflecting the wound healing status. The present study examined the biomechanical properties of healing rat skin wounds in vivo and ex vivo. Method of approach: Thirty male Sprague-Dawley rats, each with a 6 mm full-thickness circular punch biopsied wound at both posterior hind limbs were used. The mechanical stiffness at both the central and margins of the wound was measured repeatedly in five rats over the same wound sites to monitor the longitudinal changes over time of before wounding, and on Days 0, 3, 7, 10, 14, and 21 after wounding ...
Background/Purpose Vascular abnormalities play an acute role in the pathogenesis of psoriasis. In order to characterize vascular involvement in psoriasis and its regular clinical assessment in vivo , non-invasive high speed imaging with high resolution and high sensitivity is needed. Methods The correlation mapping optical coherence tomography (cmOCT) technique was used for in vivo microcirculation imaging of human forearm under normal and psoriatic conditions. The cmOCT technique developed by our group uses dense scanning OCT image acquisition and post-processing software based on correlation statistics. The frequency domain OCT system was used for imaging which acquires a 3D volume of 1024 ...
High-definition optical coherence tomography (HD-OCT) is a non-invasive in vivo imaging technique with cellular resolution based on the principle of conventional optical coherence tomography. The objective of this study was to evaluate HD-OCT for its ability to identify architectural patterns and cytologic features of melanocytic lesions. All lesions were examined by one observer clinically and using dermoscopy. Cross-sectional HD-OCT images were compared with histopathology. En face HD-OCT images were compared with reflectance confocal microscopy (RCM). Twenty-six melanocytic lesions of 26 patients were imaged. Identification of architectural patterns in cross-sectional mode and cytologic features of pigmented cells in the epidermis, dermo-epidermal ...
Background/purpose The present study aimed to investigate the influence of topical corticosteroid therapy and tacrolimus on morphological indices of different skin phototypes and to optimize topical therapy using the OCT technique. Methods Twenty healthy volunteers aging from 20 to 30 (14 men and 6 women) took part in the study: 10 persons with skin phototype I, II and 10 persons with skin phototype V, VI. Morphological state of the skin was assessed before and during application of topical steroids of different strength and calciumneurin inhibitors for 49 days. Morphological state was studied in vivo using the optical coherence tomograph ...
