In clinical dermatology, understanding collagen remodeling and reorganization are most important. Collagen provides the support matrix underpinning healthy skin and is key to preserving skin firmness and elasticity. Any issue with collagen deposition and deviation would affect the appearance in skin. In this regard, an ability to monitor the morphological changes in collagen organizations along with vascular morphology may improve our understanding in its pathophysiology and, ultimately, prevent these abnormal conditions. In this effort, we developed an advanced single input in house-built polarization-sensitive optical coherence tomography (PSOCT) device to directly visualize collagen organization within skin in vivo in various dermatological conditions like lipoatrophy, Necrobiosis lipoidica diabeticorum, and surgical scars to show the clinical utility of the system.
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