Colorectal lesions with malignant potential can be differentiated from non-neoplastic polyps during colonoscopy, investigators announced here during Digestive Disease Week 2008.
Results with a high-resolution confocal endomicroscopy probe system (Cellvizio, Mauna Kea Technologies, Paris, France) were described for Reuters Health by investigator Dr. Michael Wallace of the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida, where 26 patients underwent routine colonoscopy aided by confocal endomicroscopy (CFM).
Once endoscopists identified a polyp, they stained it with 5 mL of 10 per cent fluorescein sodium, Dr. Wallace explained. They captured a total of 37 confocal images before polyp removal and histological analysis.
Blinded investigators classified polyps as normal or neoplastic based on the combined confocal imaging grades. Compared with histology, CFM had a predictive accuracy of 86.5 per cent, a sensitivity of 82.6 per cent and a specificity of 92.9 per cent for neoplastic changes, Dr. Wallace told Reuters Health.
"The probe-based CFM system allows immediate diagnosis of colorectal lesions with malignant potential and can distinguish them from non-neoplastic polyps with a high level of accuracy," he said.
He and his colleagues noted in their presentation abstract that this method has the potential of obviating polypectomy of non-neoplastic polyps.
