[Optical coherence tomography].

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) was introduced in the 1990s in dermatology and is nowadays established as a noninvasive high-resolution technique for the in vivo evaluation of the skin. To date several studies have been successfully demonstrated the application of OCT for various dermatological questions. The main indication for OCT in the daily practice is the noninvasive diagnosis of nonmelanoma skin cancer such as actinic keratosis and basal cell carcinoma. OCT has also been shown to be a valuable tool in treatment monitoring and evaluation of therapeutic success of noninvasive treatment strategies like topical immune modulators or photodynamic treatment. Other potential applications for OCT include inflammatory diseases, microbial or parasitic infestations of the skin, e.g. scabies mites or onychomycosis. In recent years high-definition OCT devices have been developed that can potentially be used for the evaluation of melanocytic lesions and, due to the higher resolution, for the visualization of intrafollicular demodex mites. Furthermore different commercially available devices offer-in addition to the cross-sectional images-a fast-generated horizontal (en face) imaging mode. With respect to resolution and penetration depth the OCT technique is taking a middle position in comparison to other noninvasive imaging devices in dermatology such as sonography and reflectance confocal microscopy.