Australian miniaturised microscopes make it big

Professor Finlay McCrae has successfully completed the first ever endoscopy procedures using a dual high-definition, endomicroscopy endoscope at Cabrini Hospital, Melbourne. The endoscope features a high-definition confocal endomicroscope designed and built by Australian biotechnology company Optiscan.

The endoscope combines the benefits of the latest high-definition endoscopic camera (which provides crisper and clearer images for finding suspicious tissue) with high-definition endomicroscopy, a technology that provides three-dimensional cell level detail and images akin to those previously only available from biopsy.

“Optiscan is delighted with these results from our generation 2 endomicroscope,” said CEO Vicki Tutungi.

“It might be difficult for non-medicos to appreciate the significance of this achievement but those that understand the limitations of current technology realise that with this new device patient care can be dramatically improved. We have already shown with our first-generation technology, which has been on the market for four years, that when the microscope is used in a standard definition endoscope, a doctor can identify more disease by observing cellular detail in real time - not days later, when the pathology lab has processed a biopsy. But the standard-definition video does not easily reveal all of the possible areas that could be interrogated with the microscope, a limitation now solved by putting the latest miniature HD camera alongside the latest HD endomicroscope scanner.

“This combination addresses the two key steps of an endoscopic examination - firstly to find suspicious tissue and then to identify exactly what it is and whether it should be biopsied or treated. Since we first introduced endomicroscopy, endoscopists have told us this combination would be their ‘dream endoscope’ - with this achievement, ‘double HD’ is now a reality.”

Optiscan will now focus on building prototypes which will be placed in the hands of key opinion leaders around the world.

Based in Melbourne, Optiscan is a global leader in microscopic imaging technologies for medical markets. The company’s technologies enable high-powered microscopes to be miniaturised and used inside the body. The technology enables microscopic imaging of up to 1000 times magnification to be achieved. Doctors can use the technology to instantly see cellular level details of tissue without the requirement to surgically remove tissue. Optiscan has also entered into collaboration with the Carl Zeiss Group in Germany for the use of its miniaturised microscope technology in rigid endoscopes in Neurosurgery, ENT and spinal surgery.