Coherent fibre bundle-based fluorescence imaging: optimising visualisation of pulmonary alveolar pathology

Abstract

The focus of this PhD is to develop fibre-based imaging systems for the lung which can be used in conjunction with fluorescent chemical probes. Together, the imaging systems and the probes could provide a clinician with the information they require to augment disease understanding for patients in intensive care. These patients often have extremely complex medical histories and are likely to suffer co-morbidity. For example, ventilator associated pneumonia is a common complication of ventilation in intensive care. However, diagnosing lung complications in intensive care remains challenging.

I discuss optimisation of coherent fibre bundles for endomicroscopy, which are able to transmit images from within the lung in real-time, and I discuss a method for characterising coherent fibre bundles with the aim of using the findings to inform image processing algorithms. Two generations of a multispectral imaging system, designed to highlight differences between similar spectral sources, are presented. I have tested the systems on a whole human lung model instilled with bacteria and present the results. I also demonstrate the systems on other biological models for potential in situ imaging of lung disease markers.