OCT-lymphangiography emergence for clinical applications: assessment of vulvar mucosa

Dystrophic diseases of the vulva represent a large group of dermatoses. One of the most important dystrophic diseases of the vulva is Lichen sclerosus. The clinical picture of these lesions is often non-specific, and non-invasive diagnosis is ineffective. The in vivo diagnosis of dystrophic diseases is difficult due to the lack of informative imaging methods for examining the vulvar mucosa. Noninvasive method for vulvar mucous membrane is required because of taking biopsy lead to tissue deformation and consequently function impaired. The new method of multimodal optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a non-invasive approach for biological tissues visualization with high spatial resolution, which does not require contrasting agents. Here we report the application of multimodal OCT to in vivo study the healthy vulvar mucosa structure and its lymphatic and blood microcirculation. Vulvar mucosa is one of the most appropriate object for multimodal OCT study due to transparency and accessibility. Multimodal OCT showed that normally the mucous membrane of the vulva has a good blood supply and a well-developed lymphatic vessels network. The difference in the diameter of the vessels in depth is clearly traced. In the subepithelial zone, only blood capillary loops are visualized. Lymphatic capillaries are visualized starting from submucosa.