Effective indicators for diagnosis of oral cancer using optical coherence tomography.

A swept-source optical coherence tomography system is used to clinically scan oral precancer and cancer patients for statistically analyzing the effective indicators of diagnosis. Three indicators are considered, including the standard deviation (SD) of an A-mode scan signal profile, the exponential decay constant (alpha) of an A-mode-scan spatial-frequency spectrum, and the epithelium thickness (T) when the boundary between epithelium and lamina propria can still be identified. Generally, in abnormal mucosa, the standard deviation becomes larger, the decay constant of the spatial-frequency spectrum becomes smaller, and epithelium becomes thicker. The sensitivity and specificity of the three indicators are discussed based on universal and individual relative criteria. It is found that SD and alpha are good diagnosis indicators for moderate dysplasia and squamous cell carcinoma. On the other hand, T is a good diagnosis indicator for epithelia hyperplasia and moderate dysplasia.