Trebing Charlotte Theresa, Sen Sinan, Rues Stefan, Herpel Christopher, Schöllhorn Maria, Lux Christopher J, Rammelsberg Peter, Schwindling Franz Sebastian
Department of Prosthodontics, Heidelberg University Hospital, Heidelberg, Germany.
Department of Orthodontics, Heidelberg University Hospital, Heidelberg, Germany.
Heliyon. 2021 Apr 8;7(4):e06645. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2021.e06645. eCollection 2021 Apr.
Evaluating structural changes in oral epithelium can assist with the diagnosis of cancerous lesions. Two-dimensional (2D) non-invasive optical coherence tomography (OCT) is an established technique for this purpose. The objective of this study was to develop and test the diagnostic accuracy of a three-dimensional (3D) evaluation method.
The oral lip mucosa of 10 healthy volunteers was scanned using an 870-nm spectral-domain OCT device (SD-OCT) with enhanced depth imaging (EDI). Four raters semi-automatically segmented the epithelial layer twice. Thus, eighty 3D datasets were created and analyzed for epithelial thickness. To provide a reference standard for comparison, the raters took cross-sectional 2D measurements at representative sites. The correlation between the 2D and 3D measurements, as well as intra- and inter-rater reliability, were analyzed using intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC).
Mean epithelial thickness was 280 ± 64μm (range 178-500 μm) and 268 ± 49μm (range 163-425 μm) for the 2D and 3D analysis, respectively. The inter-modality correlation of the thickness values was good (ICC: 0.76 [0.626-0.846]), indicating that 3D analysis of epithelial thickness provides valid results. Intra-rater and inter-rater reliability were good (3D analysis) and excellent (2D analysis), suggesting high reproducibility.
Diagnostic accuracy was high for the developed 3D analysis of oral epithelia using non-invasive, radiation-free OCT imaging.
This new 3D technique could potentially be used to improve time-efficiency and quality in the diagnosis of epithelial lesions compared with the 2D reference standard.
评估口腔上皮的结构变化有助于癌性病变的诊断。二维（2D）非侵入性光学相干断层扫描（OCT）是用于此目的的既定技术。本研究的目的是开发并测试一种三维（3D）评估方法的诊断准确性。
使用具有增强深度成像（EDI）的870纳米光谱域OCT设备（SD-OCT）对10名健康志愿者的口腔唇黏膜进行扫描。四名评估者对上皮层进行两次半自动分割。由此创建了80个三维数据集，并分析上皮厚度。为提供用于比较的参考标准，评估者在代表性部位进行二维横截面测量。使用组内相关系数（ICC）分析二维和三维测量之间的相关性以及评估者内部和评估者之间的可靠性。
二维和三维分析的平均上皮厚度分别为280±64μm（范围178 - 500μm）和268±49μm（范围163 - 425μm）。厚度值的模态间相关性良好（ICC：0.76 [0.626 - 0.846]），表明上皮厚度的三维分析提供了有效的结果。评估者内部和评估者之间的可靠性良好（三维分析）和优秀（二维分析），表明具有高再现性。
使用非侵入性、无辐射的OCT成像对口腔上皮进行开发的三维分析诊断准确性高。
与二维参考标准相比，这种新的三维技术可能用于提高上皮病变诊断的时间效率和质量。
