Characteristics of Clinically Classified Oral Lichen Planus in Optical Coherence Tomography: A Descriptive Case-Series Study
Yuliia Gruda,
Marius Albrecht,
Michaela Buckova,
Dominik Haim,
Guenter Lauer,
Edmund Koch,
Korinna Joehrens,
Christian Schnabel,
Jonas Golde,
Jiawen Li,
Robert A. McLaughlin,
Julia Walther
Affiliations
Yuliia Gruda
Carl Gustav Carus Faculty of Medicine, Department of Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering, TU Dresden, Fetscherstraße 74, 01307 Dresden, Germany
Marius Albrecht
Carl Gustav Carus Faculty of Medicine, Department of Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering, TU Dresden, Fetscherstraße 74, 01307 Dresden, Germany
Michaela Buckova
Carl Gustav Carus Faculty of Medicine, Clinic and Policlinic of Oral- and Maxillofacial Surgery, TU Dresden, Fetscherstraße 74, 01307 Dresden, Germany
Dominik Haim
Carl Gustav Carus Faculty of Medicine, Clinic and Policlinic of Oral- and Maxillofacial Surgery, TU Dresden, Fetscherstraße 74, 01307 Dresden, Germany
Guenter Lauer
Carl Gustav Carus Faculty of Medicine, Clinic and Policlinic of Oral- and Maxillofacial Surgery, TU Dresden, Fetscherstraße 74, 01307 Dresden, Germany
Edmund Koch
Carl Gustav Carus Faculty of Medicine, Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine, Clinical Sensoring and Monitoring, TU Dresden, Fetscherstraße 74, 01307 Dresden, Germany
Korinna Joehrens
Carl Gustav Carus Faculty of Medicine, Institute of Pathology, TU Dresden, Fetscherstraße 74, 01307 Dresden, Germany
Christian Schnabel
Carl Gustav Carus Faculty of Medicine, Department of Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering, TU Dresden, Fetscherstraße 74, 01307 Dresden, Germany
Jonas Golde
Carl Gustav Carus Faculty of Medicine, Department of Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering, TU Dresden, Fetscherstraße 74, 01307 Dresden, Germany
Jiawen Li
Faculty of Sciences, Engineering and Technology, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide 5005, Australia
Robert A. McLaughlin
Institute for Photonics and Advanced Sensing, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide 5005, Australia
Julia Walther
Carl Gustav Carus Faculty of Medicine, Department of Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering, TU Dresden, Fetscherstraße 74, 01307 Dresden, Germany
Malignant transformation of oral lichen planus (OLP) into oral squamous cell carcinoma is considered as one of the most serious complications of OLP. For the early detection of oral cancer in OLP follow-up, accurate localization of the OLP center is still difficult but often required for confirmatory biopsy with histopathological examination. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) offers the potential for more reliable biopsy sampling in the oral cavity as it is capable of non-invasively imaging the degenerated oral layer structure. In this case-series study with 15 patients, features of clinically classified forms of OLP in OCT cross-sections were registered and correlated with available histologic sections. Besides patients with reticular, atrophic, erosive and plaque-like OLP, two patients with leukoplakia were included for differentiation. The results show that OCT yields information about the epithelial surface, thickness and reflectivity, as well as the identifiability of the basement membrane and the vessel network, which could be used to complement the visual clinical appearance of OLP variants and allow a more accurate localization of the OLP center. This forms the basis for further studies on OCT-assisted non-invasive clinical classification of OLP, with the aim of enabling decision support for biopsy sampling in the future.
