As skin cancer cases continue to rise, the worldwide deployment of In Vivo Reflectance Confocal Microscopy (RCM) (Confocal Imaging) technology – which produces digital images of a patient’s skin with cellular detail similar to that obtained from histology of surgical biopsies – can help healthcare practitioners both speed and improve their clinical judgments and assist in monitoring treatment. In support of RCM technology, the world’s first available comprehensive atlas detailing the technology has been published.

Reflectance Confocal Microscopy of Cutaneous Tumors: An Atlas with Clinical, Dermoscopic and Histological Correlations (Salvador González, Melissa Gill, and Allan C. Halpern, Editors; Informa Healthcare, Publisher), is a comprehensive, full-color atlas detailing the potential of RCM technology and its possible applications for clinical practitioners. The hard-cover first edition atlas totals 280-pages.

Specifically, In Vivo Reflectance Confocal Microscopy allows optical sectioning of an area of skin without physical sectioning, assisting dermatologists to examine detailed features of a skin lesion without taking a biopsy specimen. RCM technology can also assist dermatopathologists to determine the best location for a section and dermatological surgeons to determine the margins of a lesion to be excised.

More information is available here.