Ex Vivo Confocal Laser Scanning Microscopy in Rare Skin Diseases

Abstract

While ex vivo confocal laser scanning microscopy has previously demonstrated its utility in most common skin diseases, its use in the assessment of dermatological entities with lower incidence remains unexplored in most cases. We therefore aimed to evaluate the diagnostic efficacy of some rare skin tumors as well as a few inflammatory skin diseases, that have not yet been studied in ex vivo confocal laser scanning microscopy. A total of 50 tissue samples comprising 10 healthy controls, 10 basal cell carcinoma, 10 squamous cell carcinoma, and 20 rare skin conditions were imaged using the newest generation ex vivo confocal microscopy (Vivascope 2500 M-G4, Vivascope GmbH, Munich, Germany). Three blinded investigators were asked to identify characteristic features of rare skin disorders and distinguish them from more common skin diseases in the ex vivo confocal microscopy images. Our findings present the capability of ex vivo confocal microscopy to display distinctive morphologic patterns in common and rare skin diseases. As might be expected, we found a strong correlation between imaging experience and diagnostic accuracy. While the imaging inexperienced dermatohistopathologist reached 60% concordance, the imaging-trained dermatologist obtained 88% agreement with dermatohistopathology. The imaging-trained dermatohistopathologist achieved concordance up to 92% with gold-standard dermatohistopathology. This study highlights the potential of ex vivo confocal laser scanning microscopy as a promising adjunct to conventional dermatohistopathology for the early and precise identification of rare dermatological disorders.