Techniques and Applications in Skin OCT Analysis.

Journal: Advances in experimental medicine and biology
Published Date:

Abstract

The skin is the largest organ of our body. Skin disease abnormalities which occur within the skin layers are difficult to examine visually and often require biopsies to make a confirmation on a suspected condition. Such invasive methods are not well-accepted by children and women due to the possibility of scarring. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a non-invasive technique enabling in vivo examination of sub-surface skin tissue without the need for excision of tissue. However, one of the challenges in OCT imaging is the interpretation and analysis of OCT images. In this review, we discuss the various methodologies in skin layer segmentation and how it could potentially improve the management of skin diseases. We also present a review of works which use advanced machine learning techniques to achieve layers segmentation and detection of skin diseases. Lastly, current challenges in analysis and applications are also discussed.

Authors

  • Ai Ping Yow
    Institute for Health Technologies, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore.
  • Ruchir Srivastava
    Institute for Infocomm Research, A∗STAR, Singapore, Singapore.
  • Jun Cheng
    School of Electrical and Information Technology, Yunnan Minzu University, Kunming, Yunnan 650500, PR China. Electronic address: jcheng6819@126.com.
  • Annan Li
    Beihang University, Beijing, China.
  • Jiang Liu
    Department of Pharmacy, The Fourth Hospital of Hebei Medical University Shijiazhuang 050000, Hebei, China.
  • Leopold Schmetterer
    Singapore Eye Research Institute, Singapore National Eye Center, Duke-NUS Medical School, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore.
  • Hong Liang Tey
    National Skin Centre, Singapore, Singapore.
  • Damon W K Wong
    Institute for Health Technologies, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore. wongwingkee.damon@gmail.com.