Skin surface topographic assessment using in vivo high-definition optical coherence tomography

Skin surface topography and wrinkles are important biophysical features in both dermatological and cosmeceutical practice and research. Current skin surface topography evaluation techniques, such as replica-based methods, have limitations which may result in errors and inaccurate measurement. High-Definition Optical Coherence Tomography (HD-OCT) is a recently-developed non-invasive skin imaging modality used clinically for visualizing skin structures. In this present work, we developed an automatic evaluation system to quantify the skin surface topography and wrinkles in HD-OCT images. Comparison of this system with subjective evaluations of skin surface roughness was carried out, and there was a good correlation between the results of these two methods of evaluation.