The first clinical trial of optical coherence tomography (OCT) combined with multiphoton tomography (MPT) and dermoscopy is reported. State-of-the-art (i) OCT systems for dermatology (e.g. multibeam swept source OCT), (ii) the femtosecond laser multiphoton tomograph DermaInspectTM, and (iii) digital dermoscopes were applied to 47 patients with a diversity of skin diseases and disorders such as skin cancer, psoriasis, hemangioma, connective tissue diseases, pigmented lesions, and autoimmune bullous skin diseases. Dermoscopy, also called 'epiluminescent microscopy', provides two-dimensional color images of the skin surface. OCT imaging is based on the detection of optical reflections within the tissue measured interferometrically whereas nonlinear excitation of endogenous fluorophores and the second harmonic generation are the bases of MPT images. OCT cross sectional "wide field" image provides a typical field of view of 5 x 2 mm² and offers fast information on the depth and the volume of the investigated lesion. In comparison, multiphoton tomography presents 0.36 x 0.36 mm² horizontal or diagonal sections of the region of interest within seconds with submicron resolution and down to a tissue depth of 200 μm. The combination of OCT and MPT provides a synergistic optical imaging modality for early detection of skin cancer and other skin diseases.

Date Published: 19 February 2010
PDF: 6 pages
Proc. SPIE 7554, Optical Coherence Tomography and Coherence Domain Optical Methods in Biomedicine XIV, 75542I (19 February 2010); doi: 10.1117/12.841765

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 7554:
Optical Coherence Tomography and Coherence Domain Optical Methods in Biomedicine XIV
Joseph A. Izatt; James G. Fujimoto; Valery V. Tuchin, Editor(s)