The value of ultrahigh resolution OCT in dermatology - delineating the dermo-epidermal junction, capillaries in the dermal papillae and vellus hairs

TL;DR

This study demonstrates that ultrahigh resolution OCT significantly improves visualization of skin microstructures, including the dermo-epidermal junction, capillaries in dermal papillae, and vellus hairs, enhancing dermatological imaging accuracy.

Contribution

The paper introduces the application of ultrahigh resolution OCT in dermatology, revealing detailed skin features not visible with standard OCT systems.

Findings

UHR-OCT precisely locates the dermo-epidermal junction.

Capillaries in dermal papillae of glabrous skin are visualized for the first time in vivo.

Vellus hairs below 20mm diameter are resolvable with UHR-OCT.

Abstract

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) imaging of the skin is gaining recognition and is increasingly applied to dermatological research. A key dermatological parameter inferred from an OCT image is the epidermal (Ep) thickness as a thickened Ep can be an indicator of a skin disease. Agreement in the literature on the signal characters of Ep and the subjacent skin layer, the dermis (D), is evident. Ambiguities of the OCT signal interpretation in the literature is however seen for the transition region between the Ep and D, which from histology is known as the dermo-epidermal junction (DEJ); a distinct junction comprised by the lower surface of a single cell layer in epidermis connected to an even thinner basement membrane, attached to the underlying dermis. In this work we investigate the impact of an improved axial and lateral resolution on the applicability of OCT for imaging of the skin. To this goal, OCT images are compared produced by a commercial OCT system and by an in-house built ultrahigh resolution (UHR-) OCT system for dermatology. In 11 healthy volunteers, we investigate the DEJ signal characteristics. We perform a detailed analysis of the dark (low) signal band clearly seen for UHR-OCT in the DEJ region where we, by using a transition function, find the signal transition of axial sub-resolution character, which can be directly attributed to the exact location of DEJ, both in normal (thin/hairy) and glabrous (thick) skin. For selected healthy volunteers, we investigate the dermal papillae and the vellus hairs and identify distinct features that only UHR-OCT can resolve. Differences are seen in tracing hairs of diameter below 20mm, and in imaging the dermal papillae where capillary structures are identified in the hand palm, not previously reported in OCT studies and specifically for glabrous skin not reported in any other in vivo optical imaging studies.