High-speed reflectance confocal microscopy using speckle modulation.

We developed a spectrally-encoded, line reflectance confocal microscope (RCM) that uses a rotating diffuser to rapidly modulate the illumination speckle pattern. The speckle modulation approach reduced speckle noise while imaging with a spatially coherent light source needed for high imaging speed and cellular resolution. The speckle-modulation RCM device achieved lateral and axial resolutions of 1.1 µm and 2.8 µm, respectively. With an imaging speed of 107 frames/sec, three-dimensional RCM imaging over 300-µm depth was completed within less than 1 second. RCM images of human fingers, forearms, and oral mucosa clearly visualized the characteristic cellular features without any noticeable speckle noise.

Confocal Microscopy for Diagnosis and Management of Cutaneous Malignancies: Clinical Impacts and Innovation.

Cutaneous malignancies are common malignancies worldwide, with rising incidence. Most skin cancers, including melanoma, can be cured if diagnosed correctly at an early stage. Thus, millions of biopsies are performed annually, posing a major economic burden. Non-invasive skin imaging techniques can aid in early diagnosis and save unnecessary benign biopsies. In this review article, we will discuss in vivo and ex vivo confocal microscopy (CM) techniques that are currently being utilized in dermatology clinics for skin cancer diagnosis. We will discuss their current applications and clinical impact. Additionally, we will provide a comprehensive review of the advances in the field of CM, including multi-modal approaches, the integration of fluorescent targeted dyes, and the role of artificial intelligence for improved diagnosis and management.

Biopsy-free in vivo virtual histology of skin using deep learning.

An invasive biopsy followed by histological staining is the benchmark for pathological diagnosis of skin tumors. The process is cumbersome and time-consuming, often leading to unnecessary biopsies and scars. Emerging noninvasive optical technologies such as reflectance confocal microscopy (RCM) can provide label-free, cellular-level resolution, in vivo images of skin without performing a biopsy. Although RCM is a useful diagnostic tool, it requires specialized training because the acquired images are grayscale, lack nuclear features, and are difficult to correlate with tissue pathology. Here, we present a deep learning-based framework that uses a convolutional neural network to rapidly transform in vivo RCM images of unstained skin into virtually-stained hematoxylin and eosin-like images with microscopic resolution, enabling visualization of the epidermis, dermal-epidermal junction, and superficial dermis layers. The network was trained under an adversarial learning scheme, which takes ex vivo RCM images of excised unstained/label-free tissue as inputs and uses the microscopic images of the same tissue labeled with acetic acid nuclear contrast staining as the ground truth. We show that this trained neural network can be used to rapidly perform virtual histology of in vivo, label-free RCM images of normal skin structure, basal cell carcinoma, and melanocytic nevi with pigmented melanocytes, demonstrating similar histological features to traditional histology from the same excised tissue. This application of deep learning-based virtual staining to noninvasive imaging technologies may permit more rapid diagnoses of malignant skin neoplasms and reduce invasive skin biopsies.

Analysis of heterogeneity of atypia within melanocytic nevi.

BACKGROUND: Incisional biopsy of clinically atypical nevi continues to be a common practice. Questions can arise as to the adequacy of these partial biopsies. OBJECTIVE: To determine whether incisional (partial) biopsy specimens may be considered representative of the entire lesion, atypical nevi submitted to our dermatopathology laboratory were examined for the presence or absence of heterogeneity of atypia within the individual nevi. DESIGN: The study included 250 histologically atypical nevi that were selected consecutively from pigmented lesions that were submitted to our dermatopathology laboratory by community and academic dermatologists for histopathologic analysis. Also, 23 moderately to severely atypical and 25 severely atypical nevi from consecutive submissions were added for statistical reasons. Lesions with both clear and involved margins were used. Lesions were considered homogeneous if the atypia involved the entire lesion or heterogeneous if either the atypia was focal or if different degrees of atypia occurred within the same lesion. Atypia was defined by the usual parameters of architectural and cytologic atypia and host response. Also, the degree of atypia in relationship to heterogeneity and to patient age was determined. SETTING: The Dermatopathology Laboratory, University of California, Irvine. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Outcome measures included the percentage of nevi exhibiting heterogeneity of atypia, heterogeneity of atypia in relation to patient age, degree of atypia in relation to patient age, and degree of atypia in relation to the presence of heterogeneity of atypia. RESULTS: Of the 298 nevi examined, 107 (35.9%) were heterogeneous in atypia and 191 (64.1%) were homogeneous in atypia. There was no significant difference in age between patients with heterogeneous lesions and those with homogeneous lesions. There was a statistically significant correlation between the degree of atypia and patient age. The average age of patients with a lesser degree of atypia was 36.9 years, while the average age of patients with a greater degree of atypia was 44.8 years (P<.005). There was no significant correlation between degree of atypia and heterogeneity of atypia (correlation coefficient, 0.1). CONCLUSIONS: A clinically significant proportion of atypical nevi exhibited heterogeneity of atypia. Also, there was a significant relationship between the degree of atypia and increasing age (P<.005). Therefore, if a clinically atypical nevus warrants a biopsy, these results give additional support for complete excisional biopsy (which can include shave or punch) to assure adequate histopathologic sampling of the lesion.