Endomicroscopy

Endomicroscopy is a technique for obtaining histology-like images from inside the human body in real-time,[1][2][3] a process known as ‘optical biopsy’.[4][5] It generally refers to fluorescence confocal microscopy, although multi-photon microscopy and optical coherence tomography have also been adapted for endoscopic use.[6][7][8][9] Commercially available clinical and pre-clinical endomicroscopes can achieve a resolution on the order of a micrometre, have a field-of-view of several hundred μm, and are compatible with fluorophores which are excitable using 488 nm laser light. The main clinical applications are currently in imaging of the tumour margins of the brain and gastro-intestinal tract, particularly for the diagnosis and characterisation of Barrett’s Esophagus, pancreatic cysts and colorectal lesions. A number of pre-clinical and transnational applications have been developed for endomicroscopy as it enables researchers to perform live animal imaging. Major pre-clinical applications are in gastro-intestinal tract, toumour margin detection, uterine complications, ischaemia, live imaging of cartilage and tendon and organoid imaging.

  1. ^ Paull, P.E., et al., Confocal laser endomicroscopy: a primer for pathologists. Archives of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine, 2011. 135: p. 1343-8.
  2. ^ Liu, J.T.C., et al., Review Article : Modern Trends in Imaging II Point-of-care pathology with miniature microscopes. Pathology, 2011. 34: p. 81-98.
  3. ^ Jabbour, J.M., et al., Confocal Endomicroscopy: Instrumentation and Medical Applications. Annals of biomedical engineering, 2011.
  4. ^ Newton, R.C., et al., Progress toward optical biopsy: bringing the microscope to the patient. Lung, 2011. 189: p. 111-9.
  5. ^ Sonn, G.a., et al., Optical biopsy of human bladder neoplasia with in vivo confocal laser endomicroscopy. The Journal of urology, 2009. 182: p. 1299-305.
  6. ^ Tearney, G.J., et al., In Vivo Endoscopic Optical Biopsy with Optical Coherence Tomography. Science, 1997. 276: p. 2037-2039.
  7. ^ Zysk, A.M., et al., Optical coherence tomography: a review of clinical development from bench to bedside. Journal of biomedical optics, 2012. 12: p. 051403.
  8. ^ Jung, J.C., et al., In vivo mammalian brain imaging using one- and two-photon fluorescence microendoscopy. Journal of neurophysiology, 2004. 92: p. 3121-33.
  9. ^ Myaing, M.T., et al., Fiber-optic scanning two-photon fluorescence endoscope. Optics Letters, 2006. 31: p. 1076-78.