Use of NBI in diagnostics and monitoring of patients with Barrett's oesophagus

Abstract

The aim of the study was to evaluate the accuracy of NBI (Narrow Band Imaging) endoscopy. We wanted to ascertain the ability of NBI to predict dysplastic changes in Barrett's oesophagus (BE) patients and to predict low-grade dysplasia (low-grade intraepithelial neoplasia, LG) and high-grade dysplasia (high-grade intraepithelial neoplasia, HG).

Material and methods: Our study was performed on a group of 82 patients with diagnosis of Barrett's oesophagus. In these patients we compared the results of endoscopic investigation in NBI mode with the histopathological assessment. All samples were examined by two experienced pathologists.

Results: We suspected 27 patients of dysplastic changes based on NBI endoscopy-24 (88.9%) of them tested positive for the histopathological assessment of dysplasia, while 3 (11.1%) of them tested negative for the histopathological assessment of dysplasia. On the other hand, we saw a high rate of false negative results of NBI endoscopy. Histopathological assessment of dysplasia was found in 40 patients (34 patients LG, 6 patients HG) out of 82. Out of 34 patients with LG dysplasia (histopathological assessment) there were only 18 (52.9%) patients with positive NBI endoscopy, while 16 patients (47.1%) were negative. All patients with HG dysplasia (histopathological assessment) were positive in NBI endoscopy.

Conclusion: The positive prediction of NBI endoscopy for dysplastic changes in BE was 88.9%. Thus, it seems NBI is a useful and beneficial examination method for patients with Barrett's oesophagus.