In-vitro and in-vivo endoscopical detection of ciliary beat frequency

摘要

An apparatus for minimally-invasive in vivo measurements of the ciliary beat frequency (CBF) has been developed. The instrument is based on speckle interferometry technique. To be able to distinguish speckle fluctuations caused by motion of the detection probe with respect to the epithelium from the oscillations due to ciliary beat, an image fiber bundle with a position sensitive CCD detector is used. A fast CCD camera taking images with a frame rate of 500 fps provides position and timing resolution to simultaneously detect the CBF and the probe displacement. The probe can be inserted into the working channel of a standard bronchoscope. Two prototypes with different observation angles (straight and 90 degree) were constructed and are now subject to testing. First results of CBF measurements in a human nose are presented.