Definition and research guide
This page combines a MeSH definition, publication statistics and selected research abstracts. It is a starting point for reading the literature, not a medical textbook or a systematic evidence review.
Content available: 3 complete abstracts (423 words), 9 references. Full article text is not stored or reproduced here; follow the PMID, DOI or PMC links to read the original sources and their access terms.
Definition
The use of instrumentation and techniques for visualizing material and details that cannot be seen by the unaided eye. It is usually done by enlarging images, transmitted by light or electron beams, with optical or magnetic lenses that magnify the entire image field. With scanning microscopy, images are generated by collecting output from the specimen in a point-by-point fashion, on a magnified scale, as it is scanned by a narrow beam of light or electrons, a laser, a conductive probe, or a topographical probe.
Definition: NLM Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) scope note (Public domain (U.S. National Library of Medicine); attribution requested). View the MeSH record.
Also known as: Optical Microscopy; Microscopy, Optical; Compound Microscopy; Microscopy, Compound; Hand-Held Microscopy; Hand Held Microscopy; Microscopy, Hand-Held; Light Microscopy.
Where it fits in the MeSH classification
- Broader topics
- Diagnostic Imaging; Investigative Techniques; Optics and Photonics
- Narrower topics
- Intravital Microscopy; Microscopy, Acoustic; Microscopy, Confocal; Microscopy, Electron; Microscopy, Fluorescence; Microscopy, Interference; Microscopy, Polarization; Microscopy, Scanning Probe; Microscopy, Ultraviolet; Microscopy, Video; Nonlinear Optical Microscopy; Nuclear Microscopy; Photomicrography; Single Molecule Imaging
Research landscape
PubMed indexes 598,933 records tagged with the MeSH heading “Microscopy” (counts retrieved 2026-11-04). 49,410 of them (8.2%) were published from 2020 onward, and the busiest period so far is through 1999 with 257,298 records.
Reviews account for 22,867 records (3.8%) and meta-analyses for 167. Randomized controlled trials number 1,811 (0.3%) as a share of all records on the topic. Randomized trials make up only a small share of this literature, so much of what is known comes from laboratory, observational or descriptive work.
Show the data
| Period | Records |
|---|---|
| through 1999 | 257,298 |
| 2000-2009 | 133,482 |
| 2010-2019 | 158,743 |
| 2020 onward | 49,410 |
Publication-type chart data
| Type | Records | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Reviews | 22,867 | 3.8% |
| Meta-analyses | 167 | 0.0% |
| Randomized controlled trials | 1,811 | 0.3% |
Method: PubMed query "Microscopy"[MeSH Terms] with publication-type and date filters, retrieved 2026-11-04.
Reading the evidence in diagnostics and medical technology
A test or device is judged by how well it detects a condition, how often it gives false alarms or misses cases, and whether using it improves outcomes for people. Accuracy depends on who is tested and how common the condition is, so a test that performs well in a specialist hospital can perform differently in the community. Check the reference standard, the population studied, the sensitivity and specificity and whether results were confirmed in a separate group.
Evidence from open-access studies
These open-access studies come from PubMed’s best-match results for this heading (papers whose main topic it is), ranked here by citation count, with one recent addition. Each abstract is reproduced in full under its recorded open licence so that you can read the authors’ own words. They illustrate the literature; they are not a systematic summary of it. Citation counts measure attention, not reliability or clinical benefit.
| Study / authors | Year | Source label / design | Europe PMC citations | Licence / source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AreTomoLive: automated reconstruction of comprehensively corrected and denoised cryo-electron tomograms in real time and at high throughput | 2026 | Research article Design not recorded in structured metadata | 17 | cc by PMID 42185541 · DOI · PMC13259924 |
| A multimodal adaptive optical microscope for in vivo imaging from molecules to organisms | 2026 | Research article Design not recorded in structured metadata | 10 | cc by PMID 42174242 · DOI · PMC13310421 |
| In situ cryo-ET defines the ultrastructure of ER exit sites in human cells | 2026 | Research article Design not recorded in structured metadata | 8 | cc by PMID 42162283 · DOI · PMC13279273 |
AreTomoLive: automated reconstruction of comprehensively corrected and denoised cryo-electron tomograms in real time and at high throughput [1]
Abstract reading summary — source excerpts
- Opening excerpt
- High-throughput data processing is necessary to realize the full potential of cryo-electron tomography and subtomogram averaging.
- Closing excerpt
- Collectively, this pipeline prioritizes automation to support data preprocessing concurrent with data collection at scale.
- Interpretation limits
- Verbatim excerpts from the authors’ abstract; the closing excerpt may describe a finding, limitation or recommendation. Design, population, effect size and uncertainty have not been independently extracted or appraised. Read the complete abstract and linked paper before interpreting the findings.
Read complete abstract (97 words)
High-throughput data processing is necessary to realize the full potential of cryo-electron tomography and subtomogram averaging. The field's fragmented software landscape remains a considerable hurdle to this end. Here we present AreTomoLive, an automated preprocessing pipeline composed of two GPU-accelerated packages. The first, AreTomo3, streamlines tomographic alignment and reconstruction, with new features to fully account for sample geometry and locally correct the contrast transfer function. The second package, DenoisET, leverages AreTomo3's comprehensively corrected tomograms to retain more intermediate-resolution features during contrast enhancement. Collectively, this pipeline prioritizes automation to support data preprocessing concurrent with data collection at scale.
Abstract reproduced from the open-access article under the recorded cc by licence; © the authors. PMID 42185541 · DOI · PMC13259924
A multimodal adaptive optical microscope for in vivo imaging from molecules to organisms [2]
Abstract reading summary — source excerpts
- Opening excerpt
- Understanding biological systems requires observing features and processes across vast spatial and temporal scales, spanning nanometers to centimeters and milliseconds to days, often using multiple imaging modalities within complex native microenvironments.
- Closing excerpt
- MOSAIC facilitates correlative studies across biological scales within the same specimen, providing an integrated platform for broad biological investigation.
- Interpretation limits
- Verbatim excerpts from the authors’ abstract; the closing excerpt may describe a finding, limitation or recommendation. Design, population, effect size and uncertainty have not been independently extracted or appraised. Read the complete abstract and linked paper before interpreting the findings.
Read complete abstract (148 words)
Understanding biological systems requires observing features and processes across vast spatial and temporal scales, spanning nanometers to centimeters and milliseconds to days, often using multiple imaging modalities within complex native microenvironments. Yet, achieving this comprehensive view is challenging because microscopes optimized for specific tasks typically lack versatility due to inherent optical and sample handling tradeoffs, and frequently suffer performance degradation from sample-induced optical aberrations in multicellular contexts. Here, we present Multimodal Optical Scope with Adaptive Imaging Correction (MOSAIC), a reconfigurable microscope that integrates multiple advanced imaging techniques including light-sheet, label-free, super-resolution and multiphoton, all equipped with adaptive optics. MOSAIC enables noninvasive imaging of subcellular dynamics in both cultured cells and live multicellular organisms, nanoscale mapping of molecular architectures across millimeter-scale expanded tissues and structural/functional neural imaging within live mice. MOSAIC facilitates correlative studies across biological scales within the same specimen, providing an integrated platform for broad biological investigation.
Abstract reproduced from the open-access article under the recorded cc by licence; © the authors. PMID 42174242 · DOI · PMC13310421
In situ cryo-ET defines the ultrastructure of ER exit sites in human cells [3]
Abstract reading summary — source excerpts
- Opening excerpt
- Trafficking of secretory proteins from the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) to the Golgi apparatus comprises the first, essential steps towards the appropriate localization of 30% of eukaryotic proteins.
- Closing excerpt
- We quantify coated vesicle morphology and positioning with respect to other ER exit site components, providing a molecular description of the organization of the mammalian early secretory pathway.
- Interpretation limits
- Verbatim excerpts from the authors’ abstract; the closing excerpt may describe a finding, limitation or recommendation. Design, population, effect size and uncertainty have not been independently extracted or appraised. Read the complete abstract and linked paper before interpreting the findings.
Read complete abstract (178 words)
Trafficking of secretory proteins from the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) to the Golgi apparatus comprises the first, essential steps towards the appropriate localization of 30% of eukaryotic proteins. Coat protein complexes COPII and COPI are involved in the forward and retrograde transport of cargo and cargo receptors between the ER and the Golgi, respectively. Although COPII forms coated vesicles in vitro, the biogenesis, morphology and organization of transport carriers in mammalian cells is subject to debate. Here we use in situ cryo-electron tomography and super-resolution fluorescence microscopy to reveal the molecular architecture of ER exit sites in human cells that were not perturbed with drugs, temperature blocks or overexpression systems. We visualize ribosome-exclusion zones enriched with COPII- and COPI-coated vesicles and thus resolve the debate regarding the existence of COPII-coated vesicles. COPII vesicles derive from ER membranes, whereas COPI vesicles originate from vesicular-tubular clusters that constitute the ER-Golgi intermediate compartment (ERGIC). We quantify coated vesicle morphology and positioning with respect to other ER exit site components, providing a molecular description of the organization of the mammalian early secretory pathway.
Abstract reproduced from the open-access article under the recorded cc by licence; © the authors. PMID 42162283 · DOI · PMC13279273
Key reviews and meta-analyses
The most cited review-type papers among PubMed’s best-match results for this heading, listed with bibliographic details only. Follow the links for the full text and access terms.
- Research article Dermoscopy compared with naked eye examination for the diagnosis of primary melanoma: a meta-analysis of studies performed in a clinical setting [4]
- Research article The diagnostic accuracy of dermoscopy for basal cell carcinoma: A systematic review and meta-analysis [5]
- Research article Meta-analysis of digital dermoscopy follow-up of melanocytic skin lesions: a study on behalf of the International Dermoscopy Society [6]
- Research article Diagnostic accuracy of same-day microscopy versus standard microscopy for pulmonary tuberculosis: a systematic review and meta-analysis [7]
- Research article Corneal confocal microscopy for the diagnosis of diabetic peripheral neuropathy: A systematic review and meta-analysis [8]
- Research article Corneal confocal microscopy for assessment of diabetic peripheral neuropathy: a meta-analysis [9]
Full-text reviews on EvidenceLib
Open-access review articles about this topic, reproduced in full with authors, licence and references.
Cryogenic Electron Microscopy Methodologies as Analytical Tools for the Study of Self-Assembled Pharmaceutics
Na’ama Koifman, Yeshayahu Talmon, Sandra Ristori et al. · Pharmaceutics 2021 · CC BY 4.0
Optical Methods for Non-Invasive Determination of Skin Penetration: Current Trends, Advances, Possibilities, Prospects, and Translation into In Vivo Human Studies
Maxim E. Darvin · Pharmaceutics 2023 · CC BY 4.0
References
- Peck A, Yu Y, Paraan M, Kimanius D, Ermel UH, Hutchings J, et al.. AreTomoLive: automated reconstruction of comprehensively corrected and denoised cryo-electron tomograms in real time and at high throughput. . 2026. PMID 42185541 · DOI · PMC13259924
- Fu TM, Liu G, Milkie DE, Ruan X, Görlitz F, Shi Y, et al.. A multimodal adaptive optical microscope for in vivo imaging from molecules to organisms. . 2026. PMID 42174242 · DOI · PMC13310421
- Downes KW, Flood JR, Nans A, Van der Verren SE, Audhya A, Zanetti G. In situ cryo-ET defines the ultrastructure of ER exit sites in human cells. . 2026. PMID 42162283 · DOI · PMC13279273
- Vestergaard ME, Macaskill P, Holt PE, Menzies SW. Dermoscopy compared with naked eye examination for the diagnosis of primary melanoma: a meta-analysis of studies performed in a clinical setting. Br J Dermatol. 2008. PMID 18616769 · DOI
- Reiter O, Mimouni I, Gdalevich M, Marghoob AA, Levi A, Hodak E, et al.. The diagnostic accuracy of dermoscopy for basal cell carcinoma: A systematic review and meta-analysis. J Am Acad Dermatol. 2019. PMID 30582991 · DOI
- Salerni G, Terán T, Puig S, Malvehy J, Zalaudek I, Argenziano G, et al.. Meta-analysis of digital dermoscopy follow-up of melanocytic skin lesions: a study on behalf of the International Dermoscopy Society. J Eur Acad Dermatol Venereol. 2013. PMID 23181611 · DOI
- Davis JL, Cattamanchi A, Cuevas LE, Hopewell PC, Steingart KR. Diagnostic accuracy of same-day microscopy versus standard microscopy for pulmonary tuberculosis: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Lancet Infect Dis. 2013. PMID 23099183 · DOI · PMC3836432
- Gad H, Petropoulos IN, Khan A, Ponirakis G, MacDonald R, Alam U, et al.. Corneal confocal microscopy for the diagnosis of diabetic peripheral neuropathy: A systematic review and meta-analysis. J Diabetes Investig. 2022. PMID 34351711 · DOI · PMC8756328
- Jiang MS, Yuan Y, Gu ZX, Zhuang SL. Corneal confocal microscopy for assessment of diabetic peripheral neuropathy: a meta-analysis. Br J Ophthalmol. 2016. PMID 25677672 · DOI
About this article
- Sources
- NLM Medical Subject Headings (definition, synonyms); NCBI PubMed (counts, identifiers); Europe PMC (open-access abstracts and citation counts).
- Verification
- Every reference was resolved against PubMed on 2026-11-04; title, year and DOI matched.
- Review state
- automated source verified; no human expert review has been recorded yet.
- Version
- 1, last updated 2026-11-04.
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Evidence strength
EvidenceHelix's computed view of the study designs behind this topic: how common meta-analyses, randomized trials and reviews are, how recent the literature is, and a plain-language reading. It describes the design mix of the literature. It is not a quality appraisal of any study, and it is not medical advice.