Potential use of OCT-based microangiography in clinical dermatology.

Abstract

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a revolutionary imaging technique used commonly in ophthalmology, and on the way to become clinically viable alternative in dermatology due to its capability of acquiring histopathology level details of invivo tissue, non-invasively. In this study, we demonstrate the capabilities of OCT-based microangiography in detecting high resolution, three-dimensional structural, and microvascular features of invivo human skin with various conditions. A swept-source OCT system that operates on a central wavelength of 1310nm with an A-line rate of 100kHz is used in this study. We apply optical microangiography (OMAG) technique to visualize the structural and microvascular changes in tissue. OMAG images provide detailed visualization of functional microvasculature of healthy human skin from cheek and forehead areas, abnormal skin conditions from face, chest and belly. Moreover, OMAG is capable of monitoring the progress of wound healing on human skin from arm, delivering unprecedented detail of microstructural and microvascular information during longitudinal wound healing process. The presented results promise the clinical use of OCT angiography, aiming to treat prevalent cutaneous diseases, by detecting blood perfusion, and structural changes within human skin, invivo.