Optical coherence tomography of skin diseases for improved diagnosis and treatment monitoring
Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is an imaging modality which uses infrared light to provide high-resolution images of tissue microstructure non-invasively. Compared with other diagnostic methods, OCT provides sub-surface information about sub-surface tissue changes approaching the resolution of histopathology, constituting an “optical biopsy.” While OCT has achieved widespread adoption in ophthalmology, its adoption in the dermatology field has been limited due to the lack of clinically verified, standardized, imaging-derived biomarkers. This project focuses on developing standardized image acquisition protocols and applying them to various skin conditions to establish normative values in healthy people with the aim of identifying biomarkers relevant for early diagnosis
Researcher
Gavrielle Untracht, PhD, Assistant Professor
Project collaborators
Danuta Sampson, University of Western Australia
Madeleine Torcasso, University of Chicago
Peter E. Andersen, Technical University of Denmark
Selected publications
G. R. Untracht, G. Fredman, J. R. Zibert, M. Haedersdal, and V. K. Ortner, “Longitudinal Assessment of Vascularity in Actinic Keratosis Using Dynamic Optical Coherence Tomography: Practical Considerations and Theoretical Insights,” J. Biophotonics, vol. 19, no. 3, p. e70240, Mar. 2026, doi: 10.1002/jbio.70240.
T. Angelis, P. A. Philipsen, V. K. Ortner, G. Fredman, M. Haedersdal, and G. R. Untracht, “A U-Net model for epidermal segmentation in optical coherence tomography images of actinic keratosis,” PLoS One, vol. 21, no. 6 June, Jun. 2026, doi: 10.1371/JOURNAL.PONE.0346059.
A. V. Vejlsby et al., “Assessing changes in ultraviolet radiation-exposed mouse skin using optical coherence tomography,” PLoS One, vol. 20, no. 8, p. e0328647, Aug. 2025, doi: 10.1371/JOURNAL.PONE.0328647.
G. Fredman, S. R. Wiegell, M. Haedersdal, and G. R. Untracht, “Vascular feature identification in actinic keratosis grades I-III using dynamic optical coherence tomography with automated, quantitative analysis,” Arch. Dermatol. Res., vol. 316, no. 7, pp. 1–10, Sep. 2024, doi: 10.1007/S00403-024-03022-Z/TABLES/4.
G. R. Untracht et al., “OCTAVA: an open-source toolbox for quantitative analysis of optical coherence tomography angiography images,” PLoS One, vol. 16, no. 12, p. e0261052, Sep. 2021, doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0261052.
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