PENTAX and Australia’s Optiscan Imaging have developed new diagnostic equipment, the Confocal Endomicroscope, which is able to significantly assist in the early diagnosis of important gastrointestinal cancers.
The newly-developed equipment provides sharply focused, high-resolution images at high magnifications for cellular-level observations and is intended for lower gastrointestinal tract investigation. It affords a view up to 250 µm below the surface of the gut wall mucosa.
While general medical endoscopes are limited to macro observations of mucosa surface patterns, the Confocal Endomicroscope allows observations of mucosa cells in the colon and other organs at the same level of detail as that attained in pathological examinations of living specimens.
The first users of the Confocal Endomicroscope in the UK are Dr Paul Hurlstone at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital, Sheffield, and Dr Mike Thomson at the Sheffield Children’s Hospital.
Dr Hurlstone is able to conduct pathological examinations in situ on adults while Dr Thomson has used the Confocal Endomicroscope to conduct investigations in children as young as 18 months.
