title: In vivo assessment of optical properties of basal cell carcinoma and differentiation of BCC subtypes by high-definition optical coherence tomography.
abstract: High-definition optical coherence tomography (HD-OCT) features of basal cell carcinoma (BCC) have recently been defined. We assessed in vivo optical properties (IV-OP) of BCC, by HD-OCT. Moreover their critical values for BCC subtype differentiation were determined. The technique of semi-log plot whereby an exponential function becomes linear has been implemented on HD-OCT signals. The relative attenuation factor (µraf ) at different skin layers could be assessed.. IV-OP of superficial BCC with high diagnostic accuracy (DA) and high negative predictive values (NPV) were (i) decreased µraf in lower part of epidermis and (ii) increased epidermal thickness (E-T). IV-OP of nodular BCC with good to high DA and NPV were (i) less negative µraf in papillary dermis compared to normal adjacent skin and (ii) significantly decreased E-T and papillary dermal thickness (PD-T). In infiltrative BCC (i) high µraf in reticular dermis compared to normal adjacent skin and (ii) presence of peaks and falls in reticular dermis had good DA and high NPV. HD-OCT seems to enable the combination of in vivo morphological analysis of cellular and 3-D micro-architectural structures with IV-OP analysis of BCC. This permits BCC sub-differentiation with higher accuracy than in vivo HD-OCT analysis of morphology alone.
authors.affiliation: Department of Dermatology, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Hôpital Erasme, Belgium.
authors.forename: Marc
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Boone
authors.affiliation: Department of Dermatology, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Hôpital Erasme, Belgium.
authors.forename: Mariano
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Suppa
authors.affiliation: Department of Dermatology, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Hôpital Erasme, Belgium.
authors.forename: Makiko
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Miyamoto
authors.affiliation: Department of Dermatology, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Hôpital Erasme, Belgium.
authors.forename: Alice
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Marneffe
authors.affiliation: Department of Dermatology, Roskilde Hospital, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.
authors.forename: Gregor
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Jemec
authors.affiliation: Department of Dermatology, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Hôpital Erasme, Belgium.
authors.forename: Veronique
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Del Marmol
keywords: (170.1870) Dermatology; (170.3660) Light propagation in tissues; (170.4500) Optical coherence tomography; (170.6935) Tissue characterization; (170.7050) Turbid media; (290.0290) Scattering