Terahertz in vivo imaging of human skin: Toward detection of abnormal skin pathologies

X Qi; K Bertling; J Torniainen; F Kong; T Gillespie; C Primiero; M S Stark; P Dean; D Indjin; L H Li; E H Linfield; A G Davies; M Brünig; T Mills; C Rosendahl; H P Soyer; A D Rakić

doi:10.1063/5.0190573

Terahertz in vivo imaging of human skin: Toward detection of abnormal skin pathologies

APL Bioeng. 2024 Mar 11;8(1):016117. doi: 10.1063/5.0190573. eCollection 2024 Mar.

Authors

X Qi¹, K Bertling¹, J Torniainen¹, F Kong², T Gillespie¹, C Primiero², M S Stark², P Dean³, D Indjin³, L H Li³, E H Linfield³, A G Davies³, M Brünig¹, T Mills⁴, C Rosendahl⁵, H P Soyer², A D Rakić¹

Affiliations

¹ School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, The University of Queensland, Brisbane QLD 4072, Australia.
² Dermatology Research Centre, Frazer Institute, The University of Queensland, Woolloongabba QLD 4102, Australia.
³ School of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, United Kingdom.
⁴ OscillaDx Pty Ltd, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
⁵ General Practice Clinical Unit, Faculty of Medicinee, The University of Queensland, Herston QLD 4029, Australia.

Abstract

Terahertz (THz) imaging has long held promise for skin cancer detection but has been hampered by the lack of practical technological implementation. In this article, we introduce a technique for discriminating several skin pathologies using a coherent THz confocal system based on a THz quantum cascade laser. High resolution in vivo THz images (with diffraction limited to the order of 100 μm) of several different lesion types were acquired and compared against one another using the amplitude and phase values. Our system successfully separated pathologies using a combination of phase and amplitude information and their respective surface textures. The large scan field (50 × 40 mm) of the system allows macroscopic visualization of several skin lesions in a single frame. Utilizing THz imaging for dermatological assessment of skin lesions offers substantial additional diagnostic value for clinicians. THz images contain information complementary to the information contained in the conventional digital images.