Nouveau-Richard S, Monot M, Bastien P, de Lacharrière O
L'Oréal Recherche, Clichy, France.
Skin Res Technol. 2004 May;10(2):136-40. doi: 10.1111/j.1600-0846.2004.00067.x.
BACKGROUND/PURPOSE: In this study, in vivo skin imaging methods, ultrasound (US) and confocal microscopy (CM) were compared with regards to their accuracy in measuring the epidermal thickness. In addition an attempt was made to clarify the biological significance of the second echo-rich line observed on US skin images, i.e. whether it represents the dermal-epidermal junction or the papillar-reticular dermis limit.
US images were obtained with an in-house device (22 MHz probe) and the CM images with the VivaScope 1000 (Lucid Inc., Rochester, NY, USA). Skin from the dorsal forearm, the back of hand and the palm skin of 11 subjects (25-40 years) were examined. Repeatability of the procedure and reproducibility of the results were evaluated on repeated measurements taken at 1-month interval.
Both techniques are correlated. When a CM measurement is performed from the stratum corneum (SC) surface to the bottom of the papillae, results obtained with US and CM are very similar. Thus, the second echo-rich line on US skin imaging is likely to reflect a virtual line joining the bottom of the papillae. CM is limited to the measurement of a relative thin epidermis, due to the signal-to-noise ratio, which decreases with depth. US technique offers a better repeatability and reproducibility, particularly for SC measurement. This is mainly due to the small size of the investigated field of view in CM.
This study confirms the accuracy of US and the feasibility of CM imaging techniques for in vivo epidermal thickness measurement. Echography probably measures a maximal epidermal thickness since it encompasses the bottom of the papillae.
背景/目的：在本研究中，对体内皮肤成像方法，即超声（US）和共聚焦显微镜（CM）测量表皮厚度的准确性进行了比较。此外，还试图阐明在超声皮肤图像上观察到的第二条回声丰富线的生物学意义，即它是否代表真皮-表皮交界处或乳头层-网状真皮界限。
使用内部设备（22 MHz探头）获取超声图像，使用VivaScope 1000（美国纽约罗切斯特市Lucid公司）获取共聚焦显微镜图像。对11名受试者（25 - 40岁）的前臂背侧、手背和手掌皮肤进行检查。通过每隔1个月进行重复测量来评估该程序的可重复性和结果的再现性。
两种技术具有相关性。当从角质层（SC）表面到乳头底部进行共聚焦显微镜测量时，超声和共聚焦显微镜获得的结果非常相似。因此，超声皮肤成像上的第二条回声丰富线可能反映了连接乳头底部的虚拟线。由于信噪比随深度降低，共聚焦显微镜仅限于测量相对较薄的表皮。超声技术具有更好的可重复性和再现性，特别是对于角质层测量。这主要是由于共聚焦显微镜中所研究视野的尺寸较小。
本研究证实了超声测量的准确性以及共聚焦显微镜成像技术用于体内表皮厚度测量的可行性。超声检查可能测量的是最大表皮厚度，因为它包含了乳头底部。
