Improved quality of optical coherence tomography imaging of basal cell carcinomas using speckle reduction.

BACKGROUND Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a possible imaging method for delineation of non-melanoma skin cancer. Speckle noise is the dominant noise contribution in OCT images; it limits the ability to identify cellular structures especially skin cancer. QUESTIONS ADDRESSED: This report suggests a method for improving OCT image quality for skin cancer imaging. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN OCT is an optical imaging method analogous to ultrasound. Two basal cell carcinomas (BCC) were imaged using an OCT speckle reduction technique (SR-OCT) based on repeated scanning by altering the distance between the probe and the surface of the skin. RESULTS SR-OCT resulted in improved visualisation and more accurate thickness measurements in BCC lesions. CONCLUSION This OCT speckle reduction method led to improved visualisation and better defined delineations in two BCC lesions. Thus, OCT was improved to a clinically relevant level when imaging BCC lesions.