Monitoring airway mucus flow and ciliary activity with optical coherence tomography

作者：Oldenburg Amy L^*; Chhetri Raghav K; Hill David B; Button Brian

来源：Biomedical Optics Express, 2012, 3(9): 1978-1992.

Muco-ciliary transport in the human airway is a crucial defense mechanism for removing inhaled pathogens. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is well-suited to monitor functional dynamics of cilia and mucus on the airway epithelium. Here we demonstrate several OCT-based methods upon an actively transporting in vitro bronchial epithelial model and ex vivo mouse trachea. We show quantitative flow imaging of optically turbid mucus, semi-quantitative analysis of the ciliary beat frequency, and functional imaging of the periciliary layer. These may translate to clinical methods for endoscopic monitoring of muco-ciliary transport in diseases such as cystic fibrosis and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

• 出版日期2012-9-1