Bronchoscopy (NBI and AFI)
In diagnostic bronchoscopy, a flexible bronchoscope is used to visually inspect the trachea and bronchi.
Narrow Band Imaging (NBI) and Autofluorescence Imaging (AFI) are two modalities that are deservedly gaining greater interest in the medical community. To a significant degree, this is due to their ability to provide more information that can lead to faster and more accurate diagnosis of a number of conditions, particularly relating to tissue thickening. With benefits like these, the arguments for using these technologies are very persuasive.
NBI provides great potential for defining the nature of a bronchial lesion, allowing a closer, more accurate look at the angiogenic process. NBI is a promising technology as it combines good sensitivity with improved specificity. It allows superior discrimination between low- and high-risk lesions (such as CIS and severe dysplasia). NBI is available with standard videoscopes on recent Olympus video endoscopy platforms.
While NBI allows easier identification of changes in the vascular patterns, AFI identifies thickened mucosa. AFI is an interesting tool for the diagnosis of central lung cancer and premalignant lesions.
Traditionally, distinguishing inflamed areas from cancerous processes has been a common problem. To help to solve this, AFI can be used. By observing changes in fluorescence intensity, AFI may assist the early detection of a suspicious lesion, displaying normal tissue in green and abnormal tissue in magenta.
AFI is available on the dedicated Olympus autofluorescence platform, EVIS LUCERA ELITE, with one dedicated autofluorescence endoscope for bronchoscopy.