Weigt J1, Malfertheiner P1, Canbay A1, Haybaeck J2, Bird-Lieberman E3, Link A2.
Dig Dis. 2019 Jul 23:1-6. doi: 10.1159/000501265. [Epub ahead of print]
Background: Blue light imaging (BLI) and linked color imaging (LCI) are new imaging modalities for the endoscopic evaluation of mucosal changes within the digestive tract. There is little experience with these modalities in the characterization of chronic gastritis (CG) intestinal metaplasia (IM) and atrophy in the stomach.
Aims and methods: In a single-center observational pilot study, we correlated endoscopic findings with histology in selected patients.
Results: Findings from 29 patients were included in the analysis. Six patients had macroscopically normal gastric mucosa at endoscopy, and this was confirmed histologically in 5 of them. At endoscopy, 15 patients had the presence of IM in the antrum predicted, and this was confirmed histologically in 11 (73%). In the corpus, we predicted the presence of IM in 14 patients, and this was confirmed in 11 (78%) at histology. Eleven patients had the endoscopic suspicion of atrophy in antrum, which was confirmed in 9 patients (82%). In total, 14 patients had endoscopic suspicion of atrophy in corpus mucosa at endoscopy, but only 10 were confirmed in histology (71%). The concordance of endoscopic classification and histology was 93% for antrum and 88% for corpus. The positive predictive value and negative predictive value for IM were 0.74 and 0.83 and for atrophy 0.63 and 0.97, respectively.
Conclusions: LCI and BLI are helpful in characterization of mucosal changes in CG. The ability to rule out premalignant conditions by endoscopy only reflects the clinical use and harbors significant clinical implications.
1 Department of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Infectious Diseases, Magdeburg, Germany
2 Department of Pathology, Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg, Magdeburg, Germany
3 Translational Gastroenterology Unit and NIHR Oxford Biomedical Research Centre, Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, UK