The utility of optical coherence tomography for diagnosis of basal cell carcinoma: a quantitative review

Abstract

OCT is a viable tool for in vivo diagnosis of BCCs. FD-OCT and HD-OCT outperformed TD-OCT in diagnostic accuracy and detection of morphological features, but not tumour depth estimation.

Basal cell carcinoma treated with combined ablative fractional laser and ingenol mebutate – an exploratory study monitored by optical coherence tomography and reflectance confocal microscopy

“…Optical coherence tomography images were evaluated for BCC morphology based on previously defined features including presence of dark tumour islands, clefting, surrounding bright halos, focal thinning of epidermis in relation to hyporeflective structures and non‐reflective cystic areas. Mean value of D‐OCT‐assessed blood flow was calculated by integrated Vivosight software in 50 μm horizontal sections from 150 to 1000 μm depth and vascular morphology rated as (i) mesh; (ii) branching; or (iii) no direction in D‐OCT images at 350–400 μm depth .…”

“…Optical coherence tomography (OCT) and reflectance confocal microscopy (RCM) are non‐invasive imaging technologies capable to aid in the diagnosis of BCC, OCT with a reported sensitivity of 85–90% and a specificity of 60–70%, and RCM with a sensitivity of 98% and a specificity of 75% . Commercially available and frequently applied OCT device has a field of view of 6 × 6 mm with a resolution of <5 μm axial and <7.5 μm lateral and a penetration depth of 1–2 mm.…”

“…Optical coherence tomography (OCT) and reflectance confocal microscopy (RCM) are non-invasive imaging technologies capable to aid in the diagnosis of BCC, OCT with a reported sensitivity of 85-90% and a specificity of 60-70%, and RCM with a sensitivity of 98% and a specificity of 75%. [17][18][19][20][21] Commercially available and frequently applied OCT device has a field of view of 6 9 6 mm with a resolution of <5 lm axial and <7.5 lm lateral and a penetration depth of 1-2 mm. Dynamic OCT (D-OCT) software detects changes in speckle variance, and is validated for imaging of microvasculature in BCCs, 22 suggesting D-OCT may be useful for monitoring BCC treatment response.…”

Can optical coherence tomography improve the management of basal cell carcinoma?

“…For tumours thicker than 1·5 mm, OCT underestimated depth by 40·3%. But when tumours were located on the extremities, the deviation from the true depth was only 1% . These results show a moderate‐to‐good correlation of OCT and histopathology probably not limited by the technology itself but by the inherent skin morphological variations across body locations (i.e.…”

“…With the evolving landscape of noninvasive imaging, unifying the optical coherence tomography (OCT) experience gathered from the available literature can help us better understand this novel technology. In this issue of the BJD , Reddy and Nguyen report on a systematic review they conducted evaluating the role of OCT in the diagnosis of basal cell carcinoma (BCC) . They evaluated 31 studies from 2003 to 2017, including 901 BCCs.…”