Imaging cutaneous T-cell lymphoma with optical coherence tomography

To investigate the presentation of a patch-stage cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (CTCL) using optical coherence tomography (OCT).

A patient with a patch caused by CTCL was photographed digitally, OCT-scanned and biopsied. A normal skin area adjacent to the patch was OCT-scanned for comparison, but not biopsied. The OCT image and the histological image were compared.

The OCT images illustrated a thickened and hyperreflective stratum corneum. OCT also demonstrated several elongated hyporeflective structures in the dermis. The largest structure was measured to have a width of 0.13 mm. A good immediate correlation was found between histology and OCT imaging of the sample.

The aetiology of the elongated structures is thought to be lymphomatous infiltrates. Similar findings have been described in ocular lymphoma and may therefore be an important characteristic of cutaneous lymphoma. It may further be speculated that the differences in OCT images may reflect the biological behaviour of the infiltrate. This observation therefore suggests that OCT imaging may be a relevant tool for the in vivo investigation of mycosis fungoides and other CTCLs, but in order to verify these observed patterns in OCT imaging, further investigations will be required.