Background and Objectives One of the challenges in developing effective hair loss therapies is the lack of reliable methods to monitor treatment response or alopecia progression. In this study, we propose the use of optical coherence tomography (OCT) and automated deep learning to non‐invasively evaluate hair and follicle counts that may be used to monitor the success of hair growth therapy more accurately and efficiently. Study Design/Materials and Methods We collected 70 OCT scans from 14 patients with alopecia and trained a convolutional neural network (CNN) to automatically count all follicles present in the scans. The model is ...

Background and Objectives Rising incidences of basal cell carcinoma (BCC) have increased the need for effective topical therapies. By enhancing cutaneous uptake of the chemotherapeutic agents, cisplatin and 5‐fluorouracil (5‐FU), laser‐assisted delivery may provide a new combination treatment for BCC. Accordingly, this study aimed to evaluate tumor response, safety, and drug biodistribution in tumors and blood after topical laser‐assisted 5‐FU + CIS treatment in BCC patients. Study Design/Materials and Methods This open‐label, proof‐of‐concept trial investigated laser‐assisted combination cisplatin + 5‐FU treatment in 20 patients with histologically verified, low‐risk superficial or ...

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a non‐invasive, high‐resolution imaging technique with a growing impact in dermatology. The principle of OCT is comparable to that of sonography, except that it uses infrared laser light instead of ultrasound waves. It has been clinically demonstrated that OCT is suitable for discriminating between different types of non‐melanoma skin cancer at an early stage of disease. Optical coherence tomography generates two‐ or three‐dimensional images of up to 2 mm penetration depth, a field of view of 6 mm × 6 mm, and an acquisition time of seconds. The resolution capability of OCT ...

Background Investigating mutation carriers with Dutch‐type hereditary Cerebral Amyloid Angiopathy (D‐CAA), offers the possibility to identify markers in pre‐ and symptomatic stages of CAA. Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) has shown potential to detect retinal changes in several neurodegenerative diseases. We performed an exploratory study on the thickness of retinal layers as possible (early) biomarker in D‐CAA mutation carriers. Methods D‐CAA mutation carriers (n=8 presymptomatic, n=13 symptomatic, median age 50 years) and (n=9, median age 53 years) controls were scanned using Spectral Domain OCT (SD‐OCT). Symptomatic mutation carriers were defined as having a ...

Objectives We sought to evaluate the severity and patterns of calcifications in the left main coronary artery (LMCA) and proximal segments of left anterior descending coronary artery (LAD) and left circumflex artery (LCX) using optical coherence tomography (OCT) in patients with and without prior coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG). Background CABG may accelerate upstream calcium development. Methods OCT images ( n = 76) of the LMCA bifurcation from either the LAD or LCX in 76 patients with at least one patent left coronary graft, on average 7.0 ± 5.6 years post‐CABG, were compared with 148 OCT images in propensity‐score ...

The standard medical practice for cancer diagnosis requires histopathology, which is an invasive and time‐consuming procedure. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is an alternative that is relatively fast, non‐invasive, and able to capture three‐dimensional structures of epithelial tissue. Unlike most previous OCT systems, which cannot capture crucial cellular‐level information for squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) diagnosis, the full‐field OCT (FF‐OCT) technology used in this paper is able to produce images at sub‐micron resolution and thereby facilitates the development of a deep learning algorithm for SCC detection. Experimental results show that the SCC detection algorithm can ...

Purpose To investigate presumed activated retinal astrocytes and Müller cells (ARAM) detected by scanning laser ophthalmoscopy (SLO) and spectral domain optical coherence tomography, and to investigate its presence in healthy controls as well as its relationship to posterior vitreal detachment (PVD) and glaucoma. Methods This retrospective study involved 1337 eyes of 805 controls between ages 8 and 90, and 250 eyes of 146 patients with glaucoma between the ages of 28 and 95. Subjects were counted as possessing ARAM only if they met the following criteria: (1) a patchy, discrete, glittering appearance on SLO, (2) a distinct, flat, hyper ...

Chronic organized thrombus as a result of prior untreated myocardial infarction can determine myocardial ischemia. This entity appears as an angiographically irregular and hazy image; optical coherence tomography is useful to evaluate these ambiguous lesions and guide interventional treatment.

Correspondence

Importance A high prevalence of retinal abnormalities have been reported in congenital heart disease (CHD), but quantitative analysis of retinal vasculature is scarce. Optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) is a noninvasive method to quantitatively assess the retinal microvasculature. Background To investigate the retinal microvasculature changes in CHD patients by using OCTA. Design Cross‐sectional study. Participants A total of 158 participants including 57 cyanotic CHD (CCHD) patients, 60 acyanotic CHD (ACHD) patients, and 41 control subjects were included. Methods All participants underwent a comprehensive ophthalmologic examination, including refraction measurement, intraocular pressure measurement, and OCTA. Main Outcome Measures Vessel density (VD ...

Optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) is capable of non‐invasively imaging the vascular networks within circulatory tissue beds in vivo. Following improvements in OCTA image quality, it is now possible to extract vascular parameters from imaging data to potentially facilitate the diagnosis and treatment of human disease. In this paper, we present a method for automated mapping of vessel diameter down to the individual capillary level, through gradient‐guided minimum radial distance (MRD). During validation using well‐characterized microfluidic flow phantoms, this method demonstrated superior consistency and a nearly threefold decrease in error when compared to currently accepted techniques. In ...

Purpose To compare the lesion sizes of macular neovascularization (MNV) imaged with spectral‐domain (SD) and swept‐source (SS) optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) as well as indocyanine green angiography (ICGA). Methods In this prospective, observational case series, patients showing a secured diagnosis of MNV on ICGA or Fluorescein Angiography, were imaged by SD‐OCTA and SS‐OCTA on the same day. Lesion size was measured on 3 × 3‐mm 2 and 6 × 6‐mm 2 scans using the Maestro 2 SD‐OCTA (Topcon Corporation, Tokyo Japan) and the Triton SS‐OCTA device (Topcon Corporation, Tokyo Japan) and compared to ...

Purpose The purpose of the present study was to establish a semi‐automated threshold‐based image segmentation algorithm to detect and objectively quantify corneal cystine crystal deposition in ocular cystinosis with anterior segment optical coherence tomography (AS‐OCT). Methods This prospective, observational, comparative study included 88 eyes of 45 patients from the German Cystinosis Registry Study as well as 68 eyes of 35 healthy control subjects. All eyes were imaged with AS‐OCT (Cirrus HD‐OCT 5000, Carl Zeiss Meditec AG, Jena, Germany). As an initial step, B‐scan images were subjectively analysed for typical changes in morphology in comparison ...

Purpose This study aimed to evaluate parafoveal and peripapillary microvascular alterations in eyes with optic neuritis (ON) along with their fellow eyes compared to healthy control eyes using optical coherence tomography angiography (OCT‐A). Methods We included 31 ON‐affected eyes and 31 fellow eyes of 31 patients who had experienced unilateral ON and 33 eyes of 33 healthy controls in this exploratory retrospective cross‐sectional study. Optical coherence tomography angiography (OCT‐A) was used to generate microvascular structural images and quantify the vessel density of the superficial retinal capillary plexus (SRCP), the deep retinal capillary plexus (DRCP) and radial ...

Clinical communication

Purpose Studies examining the anterior chamber angle and angle closure disease often compare quantitative angle information obtained using anterior segment optical coherence tomography (ASOCT) with one of several ordinal scales derived using gonioscopy. We test the assumption that the ordinal gonioscopic angle grades have equal step sizes and can be analysed using metric statistics. Methods The medical records of 214 consecutive patients who were referred for assessment of the anterior chamber angle were prospectively examined using gonioscopy and ASOCT (Spectralis Optical Coherence Tomography, OCT, www.heidelbergengineering.com ). Anterior chamber angle parameters (angle opening distance, AOD, and trabecular‐iris space area ...

Magnesium Bioresorbable Scaffold (Magmaris, Biotronik) is a device with promising outcomes at 24 months of follow up. Previous studies with first generation, everolimus‐eluting Bioresorbable Vascular Scaffold (Absorb, Abbott) showed that very late restenosis seems to be attributed to pure intrascaffold tissue growth but very late. Magmaris very late restenosis has not been previously published, probably because of the 95% of resorption at 12 months. We present in‐scaffold very late restenosis within Magmaris, with Optical Coherence Tomography, highlighting mechanism of degradation and in scaffold “neo‐tissue” growth.

Background Line‐field confocal optical coherence tomography (LC‐OCT) is a non‐invasive optical technique recently developed for skin examination in vivo . It provides real‐time, high‐resolution vertical images with an isotropic resolution of ~1 µm and a penetration depth of ~500 µm. Objectives Study goals were to qualitatively/quantitatively characterise healthy skin at different body sites using LC‐OCT. Methods The skin of young healthy volunteers was imaged with a handheld LC‐OCT imaging device. Seven body sites (back of the hand, forehead, cheek, nose, chest, forearm, and back) were investigated. An independent qualitative [cutaneous structures’ description; visibility ...

Purpose To compare the effects of ageing and glaucoma progression on the thickness of the circumpapillary retinal nerve fibre layer (cpRNFL) and to evaluate the performance of a set of optical coherence tomography (OCT) progression analyses. Methods The cpRNFL was measured twice by OCT at each of two visits made 10 years apart in 69 healthy individuals and 49 glaucoma patients. Both visits also included Humphrey 24‐2 SITA standard testing. The change in cpRNFL thickness was analysed by linear regression, and a sub‐analysis was performed on glaucoma patients with a perimetric mean deviation better than −10 dB at ...

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a noninvasive bio‐imaging modality that is widely used in both fundamental research and clinical practice. Contrast agents with strong light‐scattering properties are a prerequisite for OCT imaging. Bio‐imaging in the second near‐infrared window (NIR‐II, 1000–1700 nm) has recently attracted significant attention based on reduced light absorption, suppressed photon scattering, and negligible autofluorescence. OCT contrast agents with both strong light‐scattering cross‐sections in the NIR‐II window and excellent biocompatibility are highly desirable. In this article, Ag‐based rod‐shaped plasmonic nanostructures are presented as NIR‐II OCT contrast ...

Letter to the editor.

Background and Objectives While optical imaging is a useful technique to quantitate morphological differences and treatment effects, comparative investigations of the various techniques are lacking. This study aimed at evaluating intermethod agreement, reliability, and technical limitations of wide‐field microscopy (WFM), reflectance confocal microscopy (RCM), and optical coherence tomography (OCT) for morphometry by assessing fractionally ablated nail tissue. Study Design/Materials and Methods Fifty healthy nail clippings were processed with a fractionated CO 2 ‐laser (20 mJ/microbeam, density 15%), measured with calipers, and imaged using WFM, OCT, and RCM. Images were assessed for nail plate thickness, micropore dimensions, degree ...

LETTER TO THE EDITOR