3D X-ray imaging technology provides fresh insight into lung disease

Originally designed for the analysis of engineering parts such as jet turbine blades, the scanning equipment at Southampton University’s µ-VIS Centre for Computed Tomography, has been used to image Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF) lung tissue samples for the first time.

IPF is usually diagnosed via a hospital CT scan or by using a microscope to view a lung biopsy sample however Southampton researchers have now applied Microfocus CT to image biopsy samples. This allowed them to view each lung sample with a level of detail similar to an optical microscope but now in 3D.

It had been thought that active scarring in IPF progressed like a large 'wave' from the outside to the inside of the lung. Instead, the study, published in JCI Insight, found that there are large numbers of individual sites of active disease scarring. The research team, from the National Institute for Health Research Southampton Respiratory Biomedical Research Unit, believes this finding will help to ensure doctors develop targeted therapies focussing on these areas.