| dc.description | Background: Port-Wine Stains (PWS) are vascular malformations
of the dermis, whereas hemangiomas are vascular
tumors usually present at birth. Early non-invasive diagnosis of
the vascular lesion would greatly increase treatment efficiency.
We propose to use optical coherence tomography (OCT), a
morphological imaging technique, coupled with functional
blood-flow Doppler modality.
Methods: We imaged lesions from five patients: one with
PWS, four with hemangiomas, using a Thorlabs Swept-Source
OCT system at 1325 nm. Additional Doppler images allow for
distinguishing blood vessels from empty cavities that appear
similar on conventional OCT images.
Results: We are able to distinguish between normal skin and
vascular lesions. The PWS lesion presents blood vessels of
mean diameter 114 lm with a standard deviation of 92 lm,
and mean depth 304 lm with a standard deviation of 99 lm.
The hemangiomas present blood vessels of mean diameter
39 lm with a standard deviation of 19 lm, and mean depth
298 lm with a standard deviation of 133 lm.
Conclusion: We show a significant difference between the
vascular characteristics of the studied PWS and hemangiomas
lesions. We believe that OCT complemented by Doppler OCT
could be a promising method for future non-invasive diagnosis
and monitoring of some vascular lesions. | |
