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Analysis of institutional authors

Malvehy JAuthorPérez-Anker JAuthorPuig SAuthor

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February 16, 2023
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Article

Diagnostic Accuracy of Line-Field Confocal Optical Coherence Tomography for the Diagnosis of Skin Carcinomas

Publicated to:Diagnostics. 13 (3): 361- - 2023-02-01 13(3), DOI: 10.3390/diagnostics13030361

Authors: Cinotti, Elisa; Brunetti, Tullio; Cartocci, Alessandra; Tognetti, Linda; Suppa, Mariano; Malvehy, Josep; Perez-Anker, Javiera; Puig, Susanna; Perrot, Jean Luc; Rubegni, Pietro

Affiliations

CIBER de Enfermedades Raras, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, 08007 Barcelona, Spain. - Author
Department of Dermatology, Hôpital Erasme, Université Libre de Bruxelles, 1050 Brussels, Belgium. - Author
Department of Dermatology, University Hospital of St-Etienne, 42270 Saint-Etienne, France. - Author
Department of Medical, Surgical and Neurological Sciences, Dermatology Section, University of Siena, 53100 Siena, Italy. - Author
Groupe d'Imagerie Cutanée Non Invasive (GICNI), Société Française de Dermatologie (SFD), 75008 Paris, France. - Author
Inst Salud Carlos III, CIBER Enfermedades Raras, Barcelona 08007, Spain - Author
Melanoma Unit, Hospital Clinic Barcelona, University of Barcelona, 08007 Barcelona, Spain. - Author
Soc Francaise Dermatol SFD, Grp Imagerie Cutanee Non Invas GICNI, F-75008 Paris, France - Author
Univ Barcelona, Hosp Clin Barcelona, Melanoma Unit, Barcelona 08007, Spain - Author
Univ Hosp St Etienne, Dept Dermatol, F-42270 Saint etienne, France - Author
Univ Libre Bruxelles, Hop Erasme, Dept Dermatol, B-1050 Brussels, Belgium - Author
Univ Siena, Dept Med Surg & Neurol Sci, Dermatol Sect, I-53100 Siena, Italy - Author
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Abstract

Line-field confocal optical coherence tomography (LC-OCT) is a new, noninvasive imaging technique for the diagnosis of skin cancers. A total of 243 benign (54%) and malignant (46%) skin lesions were consecutively enrolled from 27 August 2020, to 6 October 2021 at the Dermatology Department of the University Hospital of Siena, Italy. Dermoscopic- and LC-OCT-based diagnoses were given by an expert dermatologist and compared with the ground truth. Considering all types of malignant skin tumours (79 basal cell carcinomas (BCCs), 22 squamous cell carcinomas, and 10 melanomas), a statistically significant increase (p = 0.013) in specificity was observed from dermoscopy (0.73, CI 0.64-0.81) to LC-OCT (0.87, CI 0.79-0.93) while sensitivity was the same with the two imaging techniques (0.95 CI 0.89-0.98 for dermoscopy and 0.95 CI 0.90-0.99 for LC-OCT). The increase in specificity was mainly driven by the ability of LC-OCT to differentiate BCCs from other diagnoses. In conclusion, our real-life study showed that LC-OCT can play an important role in helping the noninvasive diagnosis of malignant skin neoplasms and especially of BCCs. LC-OCT could be positioned after the dermoscopic examination, to spare useless biopsy of benign lesions without decreasing sensitivity.

Keywords

Basal cell carcinomaImagingOptical coherence tomographySquamous cell carcinomaTumor

Quality index

Bibliometric impact. Analysis of the contribution and dissemination channel

The work has been published in the journal Diagnostics due to its progression and the good impact it has achieved in recent years, according to the agency WoS (JCR), it has become a reference in its field. In the year of publication of the work, 2023, it was in position 59/329, thus managing to position itself as a Q1 (Primer Cuartil), in the category Medicine, General & Internal.

From a relative perspective, and based on the normalized impact indicator calculated from World Citations provided by WoS (ESI, Clarivate), it yields a value for the citation normalization relative to the expected citation rate of: 5.75. This indicates that, compared to works in the same discipline and in the same year of publication, it ranks as a work cited above average. (source consulted: ESI Nov 14, 2024)

This information is reinforced by other indicators of the same type, which, although dynamic over time and dependent on the set of average global citations at the time of their calculation, consistently position the work at some point among the top 50% most cited in its field:

  • Field Citation Ratio (FCR) from Dimensions: 18.22 (source consulted: Dimensions Jul 2025)

Specifically, and according to different indexing agencies, this work has accumulated citations as of 2025-07-20, the following number of citations:

  • WoS: 20
  • Europe PMC: 4

Impact and social visibility

From the perspective of influence or social adoption, and based on metrics associated with mentions and interactions provided by agencies specializing in calculating the so-called "Alternative or Social Metrics," we can highlight as of 2025-07-20:

  • The use, from an academic perspective evidenced by the Altmetric agency indicator referring to aggregations made by the personal bibliographic manager Mendeley, gives us a total of: 26.
  • The use of this contribution in bookmarks, code forks, additions to favorite lists for recurrent reading, as well as general views, indicates that someone is using the publication as a basis for their current work. This may be a notable indicator of future more formal and academic citations. This claim is supported by the result of the "Capture" indicator, which yields a total of: 26 (PlumX).

With a more dissemination-oriented intent and targeting more general audiences, we can observe other more global scores such as:

  • The Total Score from Altmetric: 3.

It is essential to present evidence supporting full alignment with institutional principles and guidelines on Open Science and the Conservation and Dissemination of Intellectual Heritage. A clear example of this is:

  • The work has been submitted to a journal whose editorial policy allows open Open Access publication.

Leadership analysis of institutional authors

This work has been carried out with international collaboration, specifically with researchers from: Belgium; France; Italy.