Opto-Electronic Engineering, Volume. 47, Issue 2, 190239(2020)

Imaging of skin structure and vessels in melanoma by swept source optical coherence tomography angiography

Liu Jingxuan1,2、*, Fan Jinyu2, Wang Quan2, and Shi Guohua2
Author Affiliations
  • 1[in Chinese]
  • 2[in Chinese]
  • show less

    In recent years, optical coherence tomography (OCT) has developed rapidly and become a new imaging technology. OCT weakens coherent reflection and backscattering. Super heterodyne detection technique was used to improve the signal-to-noise ratio of biological tissue tomography. OCT has the advantages of non-invasive, high resolution, and high-speed imaging, and thus it is very suitable for biomedical applications. Scanning source optical coherence tomography (SS-OCTA) is a frequency-domain OCT technology and can support a high resolution in vivo angiography. As a new angiography technique, SS-OCTA still uses the Michelson interferometer's basic optical path and can achieve axial resolution of 15 microns by measuring the back scattering of light from low-coherent interference signals in tissue. Cross sectional images of 3D reconstruction of 3D images of biological tissues can be obtained, which are widely used in ophthalmology, dermatology imaging, tumor detection, and other fields. In addition to imaging biological tissue, SS-OCTA can also image surface blood vessels such as fundus and skin. SS-OCTA can observe the changes of retinal blood vessel morphology and blood flow in the choroid retina in the field of ophthalmology such as retinal angiography. Furthermore, it can also use pseudo-color to distinguish normal and abnormal vascular structures, blood flow signal detection and quantitative analysis, split different spectral images of the original full-spectrum image, reduce noise, improve signal-to-noise ratio, and then merge, so as to achieve retinal, choroidal vascular formation of any layer of significant cross-sectional imaging. Finally, we use laser speckle imaging and optical coherence tomography to noninvasive measurement of animal skin irritation and obtain dermal microvascular parameters. Angiography provides a possibility for the applications of SS-OCTA in the diagnosis of tumors, skin diseases, and other diseases. In fact, solid tumor growth is strongly dependent on the induced vascular network. Direct and indirect studies can support a strong evidence that tumor growth depends on blood vessels. Most tumors remain inactive until they become cancerous, and blood vessels no longer grow. Once entering the vascular phase, new blood vessels will grow rapidly to support tumor metabolism and play an important role in tumor proliferation. SS-OCTA can perform noninvasive imaging of biological tissues and blood vessels. This is of great significance for the early diagnosis of some tumors. Therefore, skin structure and angiography of melanoma C57BL6 mice were collected and compared with the SS-OCTA system. To observe the changes of the vascular development and biological tissue structure in the early stage of tumor growth, SS-OCTA is better at distinguishing vascular functional structures than the structural imaging.

    Tools

    Get Citation

    Copy Citation Text

    Liu Jingxuan, Fan Jinyu, Wang Quan, Shi Guohua. Imaging of skin structure and vessels in melanoma by swept source optical coherence tomography angiography[J]. Opto-Electronic Engineering, 2020, 47(2): 190239

    Download Citation

    EndNote(RIS)BibTexPlain Text
    Save article for my favorites
    Paper Information

    Category: Article

    Received: May. 13, 2019

    Accepted: --

    Published Online: Mar. 6, 2020

    The Author Email: Liu Jingxuan (ljx1216@126.com)

    DOI:10.12086/oee.2020.190239

    Topics