Application of optical coherence tomography in non-invasive characterization of skin vascular lesions

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a new non-invasive approach for real-time in vivo tissue characterization. A promising use of OCT can be the assessment of the architecture of lesions with some degree of inhomogeneities, such as vascular lesions. Knowledge of the size and depth of the vascular structures can be useful for the diagnosis and for choosing the best treatment.

The purpose of this study was to investigate a series of vascular lesions by means of OCT in order to obtain new insights into the non-invasive, pre-operative analysis of these lesions.

Seven vascular lesions were included in the study. Histopathological diagnosis showed two haemangiomas and one haemolymphangioma; the remaining four cases were classified as haemangiomas on the basis of their clinical appearance.

In all lesions, OCT analysis was able to visualize different areas of the lesion from the horny layer to the dermis showing a clear image of the vascular proliferation. Specifically, oval to roundish signal-poor areas sharply demarcated by a surrounding signal-rich layer were observed in good correlation with histopathology.

The analysis of vascular lesions by OCT provides a new insight into non-invasive diagnosis and can be helpful in the selection of the most appropriate treatment.