Differential diagnosis between keloid and hypertrophic scars: a new approach by full-field optical coherence tomography

To evaluate the efficacy of full-field optical coherence tomography to differentiate hypertrophic and keloid scars on ex-vivo tissues. All patients who underwent resection of pathological scar from November 2012 to September 2013 were analyzed. The scars were fixed in formalin and analyzed by conventional histology and full-field optical coherence tomography. The criteria for evaluation were: presence of dermal nodules, presence of cells and hyalinization of collagen. Nineteen pathological scars were analyzed. Histology found 7 keloid scars, 7 mixed and 3 hypertrophic scars. The sensitivity of optical coherence tomography for the detection of dermal nodules was 100%. This technology was not helpful for detection of cells and hyalinized collagen. In the present state of technology, optical coherence tomography did not identify the presence of cells, which makes the differential diagnosis difficult in the case of hypertrophic and keloid scars.