Effect of temperature regime and compression in OCT imaging of skin in vivo

Abstract

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a modern technique for imaging of internal structures of biotissue of up to several millimeters in depth with a resolution of several micrometers. However, various external conditions can distort the diagnostic capabilities of an OCT image. Mechanical compression and temperature regime are the two conditions which mostly affect the diagnostic OCT images obtained with a contact probe. It is shown here that the application of compression to human skin induces a decrease in contrast of the stratum corneum-epidermis junction and an increase in contrast of the epidermis-dermis junction. With regard to these junctions, a preliminary change of biotissue temperature induces additional changes in the contrast, with opposing effects in case of heating and cooling.