TY - JOUR
T1 - Application of OCT-Derived Attenuation Coefficient in Acute Burn-Damaged Skin
AU - Lu, Jie
AU - Deegan, Anthony J.
AU - Cheng, Yuxuan
AU - Liu, Teng
AU - Zheng, Yujiao
AU - Mandell, Samuel P.
AU - Wang, Ruikang K.
N1 - Funding Information:
This study was supported in part by the Washington Research Foundation, Research to Prevent Blindness, and the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma Research and Education Fund Scholarship. The funding organizations had no role in the design or conduct of this research.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Wiley Periodicals LLC
PY - 2021/11
Y1 - 2021/11
N2 - Background and Objectives: There remains a need to objectively monitor burn wound healing within a clinical setting, and optical coherence tomography (OCT) is proving itself one of the ideal modalities for just such a use. The aim of this study is to utilize the noninvasive and multipurpose capabilities of OCT, along with its cellular-level resolution, to demonstrate the application of optical attenuation coefficient (OAC), as derived from OCT data, to facilitate the automatic digital segmentation of the epidermis from scan images and to work as an objective indicator for burn wound healing assessment. Study Design/Materials and Methods: A simple, yet efficient, method was used to estimate OAC from OCT images taken over multiple time points following acute burn injury. This method enhanced dermal–epidermal junction (DEJ) contrast, which facilitated the automatic segmentation of the epidermis for subsequent thickness measurements. In addition, we also measured and compared the average OAC of the dermis within said burns for correlative purposes. Results: Compared with unaltered OCT maps, enhanced DEJ contrast was shown in OAC maps, both from single A-lines and completed B-frames. En face epidermal thickness and dermal OAC maps both demonstrated significant changes between imaging sessions following burn injury, such as a loss of epidermal texture and decreased OAC. Quantitative analysis also showed that OAC of acute burned skin decreased below that of healthy skin following injury. Conclusions: Our study has demonstrated that the OAC estimated from OCT data can be used to enhance imaging contrast to facilitate the automatic segmentation of the epidermal layer, as well as help elucidate our understanding of the pathological changes that occur in human skin when exposed to acute burn injury, which could serve as an objective indicator of skin injury and healing.
AB - Background and Objectives: There remains a need to objectively monitor burn wound healing within a clinical setting, and optical coherence tomography (OCT) is proving itself one of the ideal modalities for just such a use. The aim of this study is to utilize the noninvasive and multipurpose capabilities of OCT, along with its cellular-level resolution, to demonstrate the application of optical attenuation coefficient (OAC), as derived from OCT data, to facilitate the automatic digital segmentation of the epidermis from scan images and to work as an objective indicator for burn wound healing assessment. Study Design/Materials and Methods: A simple, yet efficient, method was used to estimate OAC from OCT images taken over multiple time points following acute burn injury. This method enhanced dermal–epidermal junction (DEJ) contrast, which facilitated the automatic segmentation of the epidermis for subsequent thickness measurements. In addition, we also measured and compared the average OAC of the dermis within said burns for correlative purposes. Results: Compared with unaltered OCT maps, enhanced DEJ contrast was shown in OAC maps, both from single A-lines and completed B-frames. En face epidermal thickness and dermal OAC maps both demonstrated significant changes between imaging sessions following burn injury, such as a loss of epidermal texture and decreased OAC. Quantitative analysis also showed that OAC of acute burned skin decreased below that of healthy skin following injury. Conclusions: Our study has demonstrated that the OAC estimated from OCT data can be used to enhance imaging contrast to facilitate the automatic segmentation of the epidermal layer, as well as help elucidate our understanding of the pathological changes that occur in human skin when exposed to acute burn injury, which could serve as an objective indicator of skin injury and healing.
KW - acute burn-damaged skin
KW - automatic segmentation
KW - dermal–epidermal junction (DEJ)
KW - optical attenuation coefficient (OAC)
KW - optical coherence tomography (OCT)
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U2 - 10.1002/lsm.23415
DO - 10.1002/lsm.23415
M3 - Article
C2 - 33998012
AN - SCOPUS:85105811724
SN - 0196-8092
VL - 53
SP - 1192
EP - 1200
JO - Lasers in Surgery and Medicine
JF - Lasers in Surgery and Medicine
IS - 9
ER -