Repeatability of vessel density measurement in human skin by OCT-based microangiography.

PURPOSE

To investigate the repeatability of vessel density measurement at human arm skin in healthy subjects with OCT-based microangiography (OMAG).

METHODS

Four locations including volar wrist, volar forearm, shoulder, and volar upper arm were scanned using an optimized swept source OCT system, working at center wavelength of 1300 nm and A-line rate of 100 kHz. Three scans were acquired at each location at the same visit. Vascular images of papillary dermis, reticular dermis, and the whole dermis layer were generated with OMAG processing and automatic segmentation algorithms. The vessel density (VD) of each layer was calculated based on vascular images, and the repeatability of the VD at the same physiological location was thereafter assessed.

RESULTS

Fifteen healthy volunteers were included. High repeatability of VD was found for wrist, forearm, shoulder, and upper arm (coefficient of variation (CV)=2.4, 2.7, 2.7, 2.0, and intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC)=0.906, 0.854, 0.943, 0.916 respectively). The VD measurements showed no significant difference between the four locations in any of the three layers, ie papillary layer (P=.1063), reticular layer (P=.3371), and whole dermis layer (P=.3233).

CONCLUSION

Quantification of VD by using OCT/OMAG is repeatable when imaging skin tissue beds in healthy individuals.