Significance Of Optical Coherence Tomography In The Assessment Of Laryngeal Lesions

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a new promising imaging modality in laryngology as yet of undetermined value. The objective of the present study was to evaluate the ability of this noninvasive method to make a reliable prediction of diagnosis in laryngeal disease. In a prospective study, 225 benign and malignant laryngeal lesions were examined with a fiber-based OCT system in contact mode during elective microlaryngoscopy. Intraoperative OCT findings were compared to conventional histopathology supplying a correct specific diagnosis in about 90% of cases. With increasing experience, a reliable prediction of invasive tumor growth and often the exact grade of dysplasia were possible. Due to the current spatial resolution of OCT, microinvasive cancer could not be safely delineated from severe dysplasia or carcinoma in situ. In contrast, benign lesions made no essential diagnostic difficulties due to their characteristic OCT image. In conclusion, OCT has proved to be very useful in the diagnostic investigation and the intraoperative monitoring of laryngeal disease.