Translational optical coherence elastography for assessment of systemic sclerosis

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Optics
• Dermatology
• Medical Imaging

Background:

• Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is a severe autoimmune disease characterized by excessive collagen deposition.
• Current assessment of skin thickening, the modified Rodnan Skin Score (mRSS), suffers from significant inter- and intra-observer variability.
• Objective and reliable methods are needed for SSc skin assessment.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the reliability and validity of optical coherence elastography (OCE) and optical coherence tomography (OCT) for assessing skin thickness in SSc patients.
• To compare the performance of OCT/OCE with traditional clinical assessments like mRSS and SMRSS.

Main Methods:

• OCE and OCT imaging were performed on 12 SSc patients and healthy volunteers.
• Inter- and intra-observer reliability of OCT/OCE assessments were quantified using the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC).
• OCT/OCE results were correlated with histological dermal thickness (DT) and clinical scores (mRSS, SMRSS).

Main Results:

• OCT/OCE demonstrated excellent inter-observer (ICC: 0.62-0.99) and intra-observer (ICC > 0.90) reliability.
• OCT/OCE showed stronger correlations with histological dermal thickness (OCT: r = .78, OCE: r = .74) compared to SMRSS (r = .57).
• Forearm OCT/OCE results correlated well with SMRSS (OCE: 0.78, OCT: 0.65).

Conclusions:

• OCT/OCE provide rapid, noninvasive, and objective assessments of skin involvement in SSc.
• These imaging techniques show superior correlation with histological dermal thickness compared to semi-quantitative clinical scores.
• OCT/OCE hold potential for monitoring SSc progression and treatment response.