Alveoscopy, Endoscopic Confocal Microscopy and Lung Rejection, Parenchymal Lung Diseases in Vivo

Completed

Conditions studied: Lung Transplant

In brief

Lung transplantation is indicated when end-stage lung diseases no longer respond to available standard therapy, making life expectancy short and associated with disability. Acute and chronic rejection are common complications following transplantation, indicating screening bronchoscopies and transbronchial biopsies at three month intervals the first two years, in addition to clinically indicated procedures when rejection or infection is suspected. Transbronchial biopsies carry associated risks (bleeding, pneumothorax). Chronic rejection is characterized by progressive obliteration of distal airways (Bronchiolitis Obliterans-BO-). BO requires open lung biopsy for diagnosis. Alternatively, a clinical surrogate (Bronchiolitis Obliterans Syndrome), characterized by decline in Forced Expired Volume in 1 second not explained by acute rejection or infection is used for diagnosis. The new technique of confocal endo-microscopy enables sub-surface visualization of tissue in vivo during bronchoscopic procedures using a probe-based confocal microscope, integrated to a standard endoscope. Bronchiolar and alveolar structures can be visualized at a cellular and nuclear level, and these images can be saved and reviewed. This new technology could potentially identify acute and chronic rejection, thus offering and alternative to transbronchial biopsies. We expect to describe a new alternative to diagnose acute and chronic rejection using confocal microscopy images obtained endoscopically, obviating complications of transbronchial biopsies. Endoscopic confocal endomicroscopy can detect and classify common bronchiolar and alveolar pathological conditions in real time. Specifically, we hypothesize that confocal endomicroscopy images of bronchiolar and alveolar structures during standard bronchoscopy could help to recognize and classify the presence/absence of acute rejection and/or bronchiolitis obliterans syndrome in lung transplant recipients. This technology could also identify the histological characteristics lung diseases such as interstitial, obstructive or vascular end stage lung diseases, and thus lead to more efficient, safer and more accurate diagnosis of these lung conditions during routine bronchoscopies.

Key facts

Study ID
NCT01033201
Run by
Mayo Clinic
People needed
71
Starts
2008-04-01
Expected to finish
2011-03-01
Last updated by the study team
2012-01-26

Who can join

Age: 18 and older, up to 80. Sex: any. Healthy volunteers: not accepted.

You may qualify if…

You may not qualify if…

Where it is running

Full record on ClinicalTrials.gov

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