Endoscopie et diagnostic précoce des cancers bronchiques : de l'autofluorescence à l'endoscopie confocale

Beside autofluorescence bronchoscopy, new endoscopic methods have been developed during the past five years that may profoundly modify the practice of bronchology in the near future. These techniques include video/autofluorescence bronchoscopy, narrow band imaging, optical coherence tomography, and 'endomicroscopy'using confocal fluorescent laser microscopy or “probe based confocal laser endomicroscopy”. These emerging techniques provide new insight into bronchology, extending the field of exploration from the proximal bronchus down to the most distal part of the lungs, and from macroscopy to in vivo cellular imaging. In the near future, they may enable in vivo, minimally invasive, “pathological grade” evaluation of abnormal bronchial or parenchymal lung tissue, and especially of precancerous and early cancerous lesions.