Abstract
We report development of a low-cost smartphone confocal microscope and its first demonstration of in vivo human skin imaging. The smartphone confocal microscope uses a slit aperture and diffraction grating to conduct two-dimensional confocal imaging without using any beam scanning devices. Lateral and axial resolutions of the smartphone confocal microscope were measured as 2 and 5 µm, respectively. In vivo confocal images of human skin revealed characteristic cellular structures, including spinous and basal keratinocytes and papillary dermis. Results suggest that the smartphone confocal microscope has a potential to examine cellular details in vivo and may help disease diagnosis in resource-poor settings, where conducting standard histopathologic analysis is challenging.
Highlights
Disease diagnosis in low- and middle- income countries (LMICs) is often hampered by lack of necessary resources
We report development of a low-cost smartphone confocal microscope and its first demonstration of in vivo human skin imaging
Reflectance confocal microscopy (RCM) has a potential to improve disease diagnosis in LMICs since cellular changes associated with diseases can be examined in vivo without biopsy and histopathology [9]
Summary
Disease diagnosis in low- and middle- income countries (LMICs) is often hampered by lack of necessary resources. Several smartphone-based microscopy technologies have been developed to address clinical challenges in LMICs [3,4,5,6]. Most of these technologies, still require tissue collection and slide preparation, which remains a challenging task in many LMICs. Dermoscopy is a low-cost imaging method that is commonly used for examining skin lesions in vivo. Reflectance confocal microscopy (RCM) has a potential to improve disease diagnosis in LMICs since cellular changes associated with diseases can be examined in vivo without biopsy and histopathology [9]. In vivo confocal images of human skin are presented and cellular features visualized in the confocal images are analyzed
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