Precision Lung
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Safety and Feasibility of a novel device system for Tissue visualisation and characterisation
IRAS ID
345499
Contact name
Nikhil Hirani
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
The University of Edinburgh
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 6 months, 11 days
Research summary
If someone has symptoms that indicate a potential lung condition, a number of lung health tests will be carried out to help support a diagnosis. For a doctor to determine the specific cause of the disorder, they often request a scan of the lungs.
If a doctor spots something on the scan that needs further investigation, like a mass or a build-up of fluid, a bronchoscopy is usually required. This is a test where a narrow, flexible tube with a camera (called a bronchoscope) is passed down into the airways to allow the clinical care team to look at inside the lungs. The doctor will look for anything abnormal and may take small tissue samples for testing. Scans will help to guide a doctor to where the suspected diseased area is, but it is difficult for the doctor to be sure they are taking a sample from the intended area, rather than an adjacent area of healthy tissue. This uncertainty can lead to an inaccurate diagnosis and treatment plan, and sampling often needs to be repeated. The waiting period from referral to a correct diagnosis is unsurprisingly an incredibly anxious time for all awaiting a lung disease diagnosis.This study will test an imaging system with a miniaturised fibre-optic camera to visualise the lungs on a micro level. The building blocks that make up our tissues and organs behave differently if they are healthy or diseased.These very subtle differences can be seen when the fibre-optic camera lights up an area of the lung using rapid pulses of light. This information allows the doctor to spot potentially diseased tissue of the lung, which would otherwise be invisible to the naked eye and other technologies used in the clinic. This will then enable the doctor to take a more accurate tissue sample.
REC name
South East Scotland REC 02
REC reference
25/SS/0052
Date of REC Opinion
6 Aug 2025
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion