pCLE imaging abstract accepted for European Respiratory Society (ERS) conference
An abstract describing our work on the detection and quantification of elastin fibres from probe-based Confocal Laser Endomicroscopy (pCLE) images has been accepted to the European Respiratory Society (ERS) conference, to be held in Vienna in September 2012.
The technique of probe-based Confocal Laser Endomicroscopy (pCLE) imaging uses a special type of microscope which captures images through an optical fibre. The fibre is only 1mm thick and so can be inserted into the lungs during bronchoscopy. This allows us to capture microscopic images of the inside of the lung. The walls of the main bronchi of the lung consist of a series of fibres made of a material called elastin, which shows up quite clearly in the pCLE images. We have developed a technique for assessing and quantifying how these fibres are structured.