A colleague here at the University of Arizona is developing a WWW-based
educational unit that will mention the use of confocal microscopy in
toxicology research conducted here at our NIEHS funded center.  She asked
me about the use of confocal microscopy in medicine (see the exerpt of out
conversation below) and I mentioned opthamology, but are there other
clinical uses of confocals?

To keep the traffic on the list down, please reply to me ands I will post a
summary.

Yours,
Doug Cromey

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> >1.  Are there any medical uses for it? If so, what are they?
>
> Confocals are used extensively in opthamology (on live people).  The
> instrument is a slightly modified version (sorry I don't know how),
> but they are apparently great for examining the different cell
> layers of the retina.  I would think there would be uses in
> Pathology, since immunofluoresence is already used extensively in
> that field for identifying cellular markers of disease states, but
> I'm not aware of any specifics.  I can post a question to the
> confocal listserv if you'd like.

That would be great!  What I need to know are examples of how the
confocal is used in medicine and some specifics about what it is used
to do.  IE if it is used to diagnose disease X, how is it used?  Do
they count cells with it or look at shapes or locations or what?
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.....................................................................
: Douglas W. Cromey, M.S.       Dept. of Cell Biology & Anatomy     :
: Sr. Research Specialist       University of Arizona               :
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