RESEARCH Open Access c n r

Bronchoscopy is one of the most important procedures in diagnosis of lung cancer and other pulmonary dis-eases. This procedure not only aims to obtain a diagno-sis but also renders important anatomical information, subtle changes in the airway epithelium and vascular patterns of the bronchial tree are clues to guide the en-doscopist. These subtle changes may influence the choice of treatment, site of biopsy and resectability of cancers when determining resection margins especially in case of centrally located lung cancer but also in case of multifocal premalignant disease. A meta-analysis showed diagnostic superiority of autofluorescence bronchoscopy (AFB) over routine white light bronchoscopy (WLB) in de-tecting premalignant lesions [1,2]. The superiority of AFB over WLB is especially significant in older studies usin