In vivo diagnosis of oral dysplasia and malignancy using optical coherence tomography: preliminary studies in 50 patients.
BACKGROUND
In vivo, non-invasive optical coherence tomography (OCT) permits high-resolution imaging of tissue surfaces and subsurfaces, with the potential capability for detection and mapping of epithelial pathologies.


OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the clinical capability of non-invasive in vivo OCT for diagnosing oral dysplasia and malignancy.


METHODS
In 50 patients with oral lesions, conventional clinical examination was followed by OCT imaging, then standard biopsy and histopathology. Two blinded, pre-standardized investigators separately diagnosed each lesion based on (1) OCT and (2) histopathology.


RESULTS
Intra- and inter-observer agreement between diagnoses based on histopathology and imaging data was excellent, with lambda values between 0.844 and 0.896. Sensitivity and specificity were also very good.


CONCLUSIONS
These data demonstrate the excellent capability of in vivo OCT for detecting and diagnosing oral premalignancy and malignancy in human subjects.
Wilder-Smith
Petra
P
Beckman Laser Institute, University of California, Irvine, California 92612, USA. pwsmith@uci.edu
Lee
Kenneth
K
Guo
Shuguang
S
Zhang
Jun
J
Osann
Kathryn
K
Chen
Zhongping
Z
Messadi
Diana
D
D006801:Humans; D009055:Mouth / Q000473:pathology*; D009062:Mouth Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*; D015588:Observer Variation; D041623:Tomography, Optical Coherence / Q000706:statistics & numerical data