TY - JOUR T1 - Imaging the upper airways in humans with endoscopic optical coherence microscopy at subcellular resolution JF - European Respiratory Journal JO - Eur Respir J DO - 10.1183/13993003.congress-2015.PA759 VL - 46 IS - suppl 59 SP - PA759 AU - Mario Pieper AU - Hinnerk Schulz-Hildebrandt AU - Barbara Wollenberg AU - Gereon Hüttmann AU - Peter König Y1 - 2015/09/01 UR - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/46/suppl_59/PA759.abstract N2 - Having a noninvasive technique to assess the human airway wall with subcellular resolution directly in patients would be of great benefit for the assessment of airway diseases. We therefore developed an endoscopic optical coherence microscope (eOCM) and tested its performance in human subjects.Images were taken with a custom-built eOCM device consisting of a broadband supercontinuum light source, a customized 400 nm spectrometer and a rigid grin lens based objective (0.5 NA) with a length of 45 mm and a diameter of 3 mm mounted on a handheld probe that could take images at a rate of 120 frames/s.With eOCM we could image the respiratory epithelium with underlying structures in the nose of human subjects. The device allowed to examine the airway wall including overlying mucus, to discriminate different types of epithelium (squamous epithelium, transition epithelium, respiratory epithelium), to visualize subepithelial structures such as the underlying fiber network, subepithelilal glands and blood vessels and to visualize blood flow. The resolution and frame rate allowed to detect ciliary beating and to analyze ciliary beat frequency.Our results show that eOCM is a useful tool for examining human airways. This technique has a great potential for functional imaging of the intrapulmonary airways of patients if integrated in a flexible bronchoscope. ER -