Structural validation of facial skin using optical coherence tomography: A descriptive study.

Area of Science:

• Dermatology
• Medical Imaging
• Pathology

Background:

• Facial skin structure identification is crucial for diagnosing various pathologies.
• Optical coherence tomography (OCT) offers a non-invasive imaging modality.
• Histopathology remains the gold standard for skin lesion diagnosis.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the efficacy of OCT in differentiating normal and pathological facial skin structures.
• To compare OCT findings with histopathology results for diagnostic accuracy.
• To assess OCT's potential as a diagnostic tool for facial skin lesions.

Main Methods:

• An ex vivo study involving 53 patients with 57 suspicious facial lesions.
• Comparison of OCT imaging with gold standard histopathology.
• Utilized a checklist of key pathological features for both modalities.

Main Results:

• OCT demonstrated high accuracy in diagnosing Basal Cell Carcinoma (BCC) at 97% and Cutaneous Squamous Cell Carcinoma (SCC) at 85%.
• Accuracy for Actinic Keratosis (AK) was 83%, and for Malignant Melanoma was 81%.
• OCT showed lower accuracy (33.3%) for Lentigo Maligna (LM) based on specific checklist parameters.

Conclusions:

• OCT is effective in identifying structural changes in normal and pathological facial skin ex vivo.
• Further in vivo investigations are recommended to establish OCT's clinical applicability.
• OCT shows promise for non-invasive skin lesion assessment, with varying accuracy for different pathologies.