Instant
Optical Biopsy

Melanocytic lesions

VivaScope microscopes can be used for the early detection and diagnosis of lentigo maligna and amelanotic melanoma, for instance.

When examining the areas of pigmented lesions and melanocytes, results of 98.15% sensitivity and 98.89% specificity have been achieved.

Malignant melanomas can be distinguished clearly from benign nevi in the VivaScope examination.

By now, more than 30 studies have documented the distinguishability in skin structure and, additionally, diagnosis criteria and a scoring algorithm have been developed.

Non-melanocytic lesions

For the diagnosis of non-melanoma skin cancer, such as basal cell carcinoma, squamous cell cancer and actinic keratosis, the classical examination procedure is a biopsy followed by a histological examination.
In contrast, the VivaScope allows for non-invasive and prompt diagnoses with high-quality image depiction of the individual skin components in cellular resolution.
Studies have shown that with only one diagnostic criterion, the sensitivity of detecting a basal cell carcinoma reaches 100%.
When analysing centres of inflammation and increased vascularity, sensitivity is still over 80%.

Lentigo maligna

The presurgical margin mapping for a Lentigo maligna surgery reduces the risk of recurrence and allows for minimal removal of benign tissue. Confocal laser scanning microscopy allows for the precise detection of tumour margins and thus the exact removal of malignant tissue. The excision of healthy tissue can be reduced drastically.

It is possible to narrow the margins because confocal images allow the epidermis to be depicted down to the upper dermis. The confocal picture shows an accumulation of irregular, atypical melanocytes. In the dermoepidermal junction zone, the following features are crucial for the diagnosis: The tissue with a honeycomb structure is distorted; irregular oval structures or prolonged dendritic processes take place in the junction zone and above.

Inflammatory diseases

For psoriasis and similar skin diseases, margin assessment on the basis of confocal images can provide information about the extent, to which the tissue is affected by the inflammatory changes. The images show an enlargement of the dermal papillae on the edge of a skin region affected by psoriasis.