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. 2020 Dec 23;13(4):381–392. doi: 10.1007/s12200-020-1096-x

Line-field confocal optical coherence tomography for three-dimensional skin imaging

Jonas Ogien 1, Anthony Daures 1, Maxime Cazalas 1, Jean-Luc Perrot 2, Arnaud Dubois 3,✉
PMCID: PMC9743950  PMID: 36641566

Abstract

This paper reports on the latest advances in line-field confocal optical coherence tomography (LC-OCT), a recently invented imaging technology that now allows the generation of either horizontal (x × y) section images at an adjustable depth or vertical (x × z) section images at an adjustable lateral position, as well as three-dimensional images. For both two-dimensional imaging modes, images are acquired in real-time, with real-time control of the depth and lateral positions. Three-dimensional (x × y × z) images are acquired from a stack of horizontal section images. The device is in the form of a portable probe. The handle of the probe has a button and a scroll wheel allowing the user to control the imaging modes. Using a supercontinuum laser as a broadband light source and a high numerical microscope objective, an isotropic spatial resolution of ∼1 µm is achieved. The field of view of the three-dimensional images is 1.2 mm × 0.5 mm × 0.5 mm (x × y × z). Images of skin tissues are presented to demonstrate the potential of the technology in dermatology.

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Keywords: optical coherence tomography (OCT), microscopy, three-dimensional imaging, dermatology

Acknowledgements

The authors thank the whole team of engineers at DAMAE Medical, especially Olivier Levecq, Hicham Azimani, Emmanuel Cohen and Romain Allemand, for their work on the technology and design of the LC-OCT prototype presented in this paper. They also thank Amyn Kassara for providing the segmentation of the three-dimensional images. They are also grateful to Anaïs Barut and David Siret as directors and managers of DAMAE Medical.

Footnotes

Jonas Ogien received his M.S. degree in Optics in 2014 from University of Rochester (USA) and his Ph.D. degree in Physics in 2017 from Paris-Saclay University (France). He also holds an engineering degree from Institut d’Optique Graduate School (France) and currently works as a research engineer at DAMAE Medical, a startup company working on OCT for skin imaging. He is particularly interested in innovative optical methods for high-resolution imaging. His current research focuses on the development of new modalities and optical improvements in OCT.

Anthony Daures received his engineering degree in Physics from Institut National des Sciences Appliquées in Toulouse (France) in 2014. He also holds an M.S. degree in Medical Imaging from University of Paul Sabatier (Toulouse, France). As an image processing engineer with more than seven years of experience, he has worked for different medical imaging companies and has always focused on the development of innovative algorithms. He is currently working as an image quality engineer at DAMAE Medical to improve diagnosis in real-time.

Maxime Cazalas, M.Sc., is a computer science and image processing engineer with over 14 years of experience in medical imaging. Passionate about innovation in the field of medical imaging, he has been involved in the development of new and innovative imaging solutions to assist physicians in delivering the best possible care to their patient. Maxime is currently focused on dermato-oncology, using in vivo optical imaging technics to better understand the pathogenesis of skin tumors, enabling earlier diagnosis and optimal patient-tailored therapy.

Jean-Luc Perrot, Ph.D. & M.D., has a 30-year career as a dermatologist and medical oncologist at Saint-Etienne University Hospital (France). He was the former president of the non-invasive skin imaging group of the French Society of Dermatology. Multimodal skin imaging has developed considerably in his dermatology department where different optical techniques are combined, including confocal microscopy, OCT, LC-OCT, dermatoscopy and Raman spectroscopy. Perrot has been involved in the validation and/or design of several innovative imaging devices. Although he has published numerous books on skin imaging, his primary objective remains the management of patients in the context of daily practice.

Arnaud Dubois received his Ph.D. degree in Physics in 1997 from Paris-Saclay University (France). Since 2006, he is a professor of optics at Université Paris-Saclay, Institut d’Optique Graduate School (France). Pioneer in full-field OCT in the early 2000, Dubois has since been a major contributor to the development of this technology. He has published 120 research articles in scientific journals and conference proceedings and 12 book chapters. He was the scientific editor in 2016 of the first and only handbook entirely devoted to full-field OCT. In 2014, Dubois co-founded DAMAE Medical, a startup company working on an innovative OCT technique for skin imaging.

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