Multimodal optical imaging for in vivo discrimination of equivocal melanocytic skin lesions

摘要

Early diagnosis of melanoma is an ongoing challenge in dermatology and oncology. There is a special subgroup ofmelanocytic lesions that can be clinically and dermoscopically indistinguishable from early melanoma. The aim of thestudy was to improve the in vivo diagnostic possibilities for the differentiation of dermoscopic equivocal melanocyticlesions based on combination of multiphoton tomography (MPT) and optical coherence angiography (OCA). Amultiphoton optical score (MPOS) for quantitative assessment of the melanoma features revealed by MPM wasdeveloped. OCA images were processed to calculate the vessel densities and the total lengths thin and thick vessels.Histopathological analysis separated the equivocal lesions into benign, melanoma in situ, and invasive melanoma. TheMPOS value of benign lesions was significant lower than for the malignant ones. Quantitative analysis of OCA imagesrevealed that the invasive melanoma type has the highest vessel density. The combined use of multiphoton tomographywith MPOS calculation and quantification of optical coherence angiography data demonstrated a potential todiscriminate all dermoscopic equivocal melanocytic lesions in vivo.