In Vivo Reflectance Confocal Microscopy for Mucous Membranes

Reflectance confocal microscopy (RCM) is an advanced noninvasive diagnostic technique that allows tissue imaging in vivo, contributing to a more accurate diagnosis of skin cancers. Recently, the RCM devices dedicated to the skin have also been applied to perform “virtual biopsies” of the oral, genital, and ocular mucosa, sensitive areas where noninvasive imaging techniques are of high interest to spare biopsies and excisions. In this chapter, RCM features of healthy mucosa are described as well as most important features to distinguish melanosis from melanoma. Besides being useful for the diagnosis, RCM may be helpful to identify the area to be biopsied in case of large or multifocal mucosal lesions and may be regarded as a complementary technique for noninvasive assessment of treatment efficacy.