Measurement of hypoxia-related parameters in bronchial mucosa by use of optical spectroscopy.

RATIONALE: Tumor hypoxia has both prognostic and therapeutic consequences for solid tumors. We developed a novel noninvasive technique, differential path-length spectroscopy (DPS), which allows the measurement of hypoxia-related parameters in the superficial microvasculature of tissue.

OBJECTIVES

The aim of this study was to measure the microvascular oxygenation of histologically normal endobronchial mucosa and of neoplastic lesions during bronchoscopy using DPS.

METHODS

Sixty-four patients with known or suspected malignancies of the lung were studied. One hundred and five endobronchial lesions (38 histologically normal, 37 metaplastic/mild dysplastic lesions, and 30 invasive carcinomas) were detected by white and/or autofluorescence bronchoscopy and measured using DPS.

RESULTS

We observed that bronchial tumors are characterized by a lower blood oxygen saturation and a higher blood content than normal mucosa. No differences were observed between normal and metaplastic/mild dysplastic mucosa.

CONCLUSION

DPS is a new optical technique allowing the noninvasive study of endobronchial tumor hypoxia.