ECLIPSE Ci Series

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Customer Interview The ECLIPSE Ci-L plus contributes to more comfortable clinical examinations.

“Together with the high optical performance, I realized its thoughtful design aids our daily work.”

Clinical examinations play an important role in medical care. Nikon has developed a new biological microscope, the ECLIPSE Ci-L plus, with the concept of reducing physical and mental strain on clinicians and laboratory technicians who use microscopes on a daily basis. In this interview, we talked to Dr. Akira Yoshikawa from the Department of Anatomic Pathology, Kameda Medical Center – a flagship hospital in the southern part of Chiba prefecture, Japan – on his thoughts after employing this microscope and the newly developed objective lens for microscopes ‘CFI Plan Apochromat Lambda D’ for practical everyday use.

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Kameda Medical Center – a hospital that performs about 40,000 clinical diagnoses with microscopes a year

Kameda Medical Center, part of Medical Corporation Tesshokai, is a large-scale medical service facility with 34 clinical departments and 865 hospital beds located in Kamogawa City, Chiba Prefecture, Japan. As a flagship hospital in the southern part of Chiba Prefecture, Kameda Medical Center provides a wide range of medical care services, from emergency and acute medical care to chronic and in-home treatment.

Exterior view of Kameda Medical Center.

Dr. Akira Yoshikawa – Specialist (Senior Resident) at the Anatomic Pathology Department, Kameda Medical Center.

Currently, there are 12 full-time pathologists in the Anatomic Pathology department where Dr. Yoshikawa works, with about 40,000 cases diagnosed annually. Since Kameda Medical Center is a general hospital with many clinical departments, it frequently receives various requests for observation. In fact, during this interview, the department happened to receive an urgent observation request.

Each observation requires about 10 to 15 minutes, including confirmation with the physician and the preparation of samples. Pathologists are expected to provide rapid and accurate results for each observation. In order to effectively achieve such crucial tasks, excellent technical skills with high levels of concentration are essential. As well as this, the hospital facility is very large – it is also common for pathologists to move back and forth between the various buildings while walking up and down multiple flights of stairs. It is evident that this is a demanding profession both physically and mentally, since staff members not only have to move nimbly around the facility but also must make quick, precise diagnoses during their observations.

The ECLIPSE Ci-L plus microscope supports fast and accurate observations

We talked to Dr. Yoshikawa about the ECLIPSE Ci-L plus that he has recently been using.

― What kind of observations do you mainly perform? Also, roughly how many do you conduct in one day?

Dr. Yoshikawa: “In my case, since I work at a general medical center, I handle a wide range of specimens including systemic organs such as the digestive, respiratory, and circulatory systems – along with blood samples. As for the number of observations, I think I usually look at from 20 up to as many as 40 cases per day for histopathology and cytopathology.”

― Have you ever felt that conducting all these observations is stressful or demanding on your body?

Dr. Yoshikawa: “On days when there are many observations, I’ve often realized that my back is stiff later, and this is probably because my observation posture is not ideal. Also, we often change the magnification when we are observing samples or specimens. If the light intensity is not adjusted properly, it can sometimes become too bright and that can cause a huge strain on my eyes.”

― How was your experience employing the ECLIPSE Ci-L plus?

Dr. Yoshikawa: “Since I can finetune the length and the angle of the binocular tube, I do feel that my body is less tired than before, probably because I can observe samples with a much more comfortable posture. The ECLIPSE Ci-L plus was installed in the clinic building and was also used by other physicians, so I made some adjustments every time I performed observations.”

The ergonomic binocular tube allows for adjustment of the inclination angle and extension of the eyepiece tube.

The height of the stage handle is also adjustable.

― How about the strain on your eyes?

“We have to frequently change the magnification of the objective lens, especially for histopathology slides. This microscope is able to record the light intensity that we adjusted it to. And since this recorded light intensity is automatically reproducible, there's no sudden glare, which I think will definitely reduce eye strain.”

Turning the dial adjusts the light intensity and pushing records it.

The recorded light intensity is automatically reproduced when switching to the recorded objective lens.

The light intensity and objective lens information are shown on the display at the base.

Advancing the field of future clinical examinations

For clinical examinations, each physician and laboratory technician has his or her own most comfortable posture and hand positioning that aids them in making observations. There are also individual preferences in the adjustment settings of the light intensities. The best combination of these for each observer thus leads to quicker and more accurate observations of more specimens with less strain – all while maintaining a high level of concentration.

The ECLIPSE Ci-L plus was designed through multiple surveys in clinical settings and interviews with prospective users from the planning and development stages. Various aspects have been considered on how to enable users to make quick and accurate observations while reducing their physical and mental strain. The ECLIPSE Ci-L plus microscope is designed to perform and function so as to effectively assist physicians and laboratory technicians in clinical examinations on-site while contributing to the health and well-being of more people than ever before.

Dr. Yoshikawa and the Nikon ECLIPSE Ci-L plus.

Dr. Yoshikawa has recently employed the newly developed objective lenses for microscopes CFI Plan Apochromat Lambda D 10x and 40x. He highly evaluated them and commented “When screening for rapid cytopathology, it’s always unclear whether it’s better to use a 4x or 10x lens. However, this 10x lens provides a wide field of view with high resolution, which is extremely useful. Also, at 40x, you can observe the target more accurately with minimized aberration.”

Nikon objective lens for microscopes CFI Plan Apochromat Lambda D

When asked a final question about the ECLIPSE Ci-L plus and Nikon products in general, Dr. Yoshikawa gave this very positive response: “I think it's a user-friendly tool that aids us in our daily work while leveraging Nikon’s greatest feature – a high-performing optical system.”

*1 Histopathology is observation for inspecting a surgically collected sample from the human body.

*2 HE staining is a method employing hematoxylin and eosin to distinguish the cell nucleus from other tissue components.

*3 Elastica Masson staining is a method used for elastic fibers such as arteries and lungs, collagen fibers such as ligaments and bones, and other connective tissues.

*4 PAS staining is utilized to stain lymphocytes and mucopolysaccharides. It is used when deciding on treatment for lymphocytic leukemia.

*5 Immunostaining uses an antibody-based method combined with color reactions to detect antigens only.

*6 Cytopathology is observation to inspect cells collected from mucous membranes, sputum, and pus using a cotton swab or injection needle.

*7 Giemsa staining is the most basic staining method for blood and bone marrow smears.

*8 Papanicolaou stain is a method developed for cytopathology and is indispensable for the early detection and definitive diagnosis of cancer.

*9 Rapid Giemsa staining (Cyto-Quick) is a method that improves Giemsa staining and significantly shortens the staining time.