Abstract
Studies have proven the relationship between cutaneous vasculature abnormalities and dermatological disorders, but to image vasculature noninvasively <italic<in vivo</italic<, advanced optical imaging techniques are required. In this study, we imaged a palm of a healthy volunteer and three subjects with cutaneous abnormalities with photoacoustic tomography (PAT) and optical coherence tomography with angiography extension (OCTA). Capillaries in the papillary dermis that are too small to be discerned with PAT are visualized with OCTA. From our results, we speculate that the PA signal from the palm is mostly from hemoglobin in capillaries rather than melanin, knowing that melanin concentration in volar skin is significantly smaller than that in other areas of the skin. We present for the first time OCTA images of capillaries along with the PAT images of the deeper vessels, demonstrating the complementary effective imaging depth range and the visualization capabilities of PAT and OCTA for imaging human skin <italic<in vivo</italic<. The proposed imaging system in this study could significantly improve treatment monitoring of dermatological diseases associated with cutaneous vasculature abnormalities.
Highlights
Studies have proven the relationship between cutaneous vasculature abnormalities and dermatological disorders, but to image vasculature noninvasively in vivo, advanced optical imaging techniques are required
Volar skin is characterized histologically by a thick cornified layer and a prominent undulate pattern of epidermal rete ridges and dermal papillae, which ensure a tight junction of the epidermis and the dermis.[1]
Several other studies have shown vascular network in volar skin using Photoacoustic maging (PAI),[11,12,13] but most of them use piezoelectric transducers and lack the sensitivity to adequately visualize the capillaries in the papillary dermis
Summary
Studies have proven the relationship between cutaneous vasculature abnormalities and dermatological disorders, but to image vasculature noninvasively in vivo, advanced optical imaging techniques are required. OCT-based angiography (OCTA) is an extension of OCT that can visualize vascular structure down to the level of capillaries in human skin.[11,14,15,16] The contrast in OCTA is based on moving scatterers in blood.[17] The high lateral resolution and deep imaging depth make OCTA a strong competitor to PAM when it comes to imaging capillaries in skin.
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