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Dual-mode Imaging of Cutaneous Tissue Oxygenation and Vascular Function
Published on: December 8, 2010
Imaging of skin birefringence for human scar assessment using polarization-sensitive optical coherence tomography
Peijun Gong1, Lixin Chin1, Shaghayegh Es'haghian1
1The University of Western Australia, School of Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering, Optical+Biomedical Engineering Laboratory, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, Western Australia 6009, Australia.
Abstract:
We demonstrate the in vivo assessment of human scars by parametric imaging of birefringence using polarization-sensitive optical coherence tomography (PS-OCT). Such in vivo assessment is subject to artifacts in the detected birefringence caused by scattering from blood vessels. To reduce these artifacts, we preprocessed the PS-OCT data using a vascular masking technique. The birefringence of the remaining tissue regions was then automatically quantified. Results from the scars and contralateral or adjacent normal skin of 13 patients show a correspondence of birefringence with scar type: the ratio of birefringence of hypertrophic scars to corresponding normal skin is 2.2 ± 0.2 (mean ± standard deviation ), while the ratio of birefringence of normotrophic scars to normal skin is 1.1 ± 0.4 . This method represents a new clinically applicable means for objective, quantitative human scar assessment.
