Figure - PMC

Skip to main content

An official website of the United States government

Here's how you know

Here's how you know

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

View full-text article in PMC

. 2021 Jun 25;77(4):370–377. doi: 10.1136/thoraxjnl-2021-216885

Search in PMC
Search in PubMed
View in NLM Catalog
Add to search

© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2022. Re-use permitted under CC BY. Published by BMJ.

This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported (CC BY 4.0) license, which permits others to copy, redistribute, remix, transform and build upon this work for any purpose, provided the original work is properly cited, a link to the licence is given, and indication of whether changes were made. See: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

PMC Copyright notice

(A–D) Real-time needle-based confocal laser endomicroscopy (nCLE) imaging at the needle tip showing three nCLE airway criteria (elastin fibres, bronchial epithelium and still image) and the alveoli of the lung parenchyma. (E–H) Histology (E, G and H) and cytology (F) of the different structures in the airway and lung parenchyma. (I–L) Schematic display of the airway (I–K) and lung parenchyma (L) nCLE features. (A) Autofluorescent elastin fibre bundles (indicated in E by arrow) along the lumen of the airway (indicated in E by L*). (B) Small homogeneous and equally distributed cells representing the bronchial epithelium (F). (C) Still nCLE image as the result of the CLE-probe being advanced in the lumen of a larger airway (indicated in G by L*) without touching the airway wall. (D) Autofluorescent alveoli with a hexagonal architecture (H). Scale bar: (A–F and H) 20 µm and (G) 50 µm.