Colin J Rees 1 , 2 , 3 , Praveen T Rajasekhar 1 , 3 , Ana Wilson 4 , Helen Close 5 , Matthew D Rutter 2 , 3 , 6 , Brian P Saunders 4 , James E East 7 , Rebecca Maier 5 , Morgan Moorghen 4 , Usman Muhammad 5 , Helen Hancock 5 , Anthoor Jayaprakash 8 , Chris MacDonald 9 , Arvind Ramadas 10 , Anjan Dhar 11 , James M Mason 12
Laura Neilson (Collab), Adil Ahmed (Collab), Roisin Bevan (Collab), Mike Bradburn (Collab), Faheem Butt (Collab), Andrew Douglass (Collab), Vikki Edge (Collab), John Greenaway (Collab), Wendy Gregory (Collab), John Hancock (Collab), Lindsay Hurst (Collab), Babur Javaid (Collab), Diamond Joy (Collab), Deepak Kejariwal (Collab), Susan McConnell (Collab), Jestina Miles (Collab), Sarah Mills (Collab), David Oliver (Collab), Simon Panter (Collab), Francisco Porras-Perez (Collab), John Silcock (Collab), Joanne Topping (Collab), Christopher Wells (Collab), Jennifer Wilkinson (Collab), Catherine Frost (Collab), Greg Rubin (Collab), Janice Mulley (Collab), Yan Yiannakou (Collab), Stephen Attwood (Collab), Mike Bramble (Collab), Adetayo Kasim (Collab)
19 April 2016
ENDOSCOPY, COLONOSCOPY, COLORECTAL ADENOMAS, COLONIC NEOPLASMS
Accurate optical characterisation and removal of small adenomas (<10 mm) at colonoscopy would allow hyperplastic polyps to be left in situ and surveillance intervals to be determined without the need for histopathology. Although accurate in specialist practice the performance of narrow band imaging (NBI), colonoscopy in routine clinical practice is poorly understood.
NBI-assisted optical diagnosis was compared with reference standard histopathological findings in a prospective, blinded study, which recruited adults undergoing routine colonoscopy in six general hospitals in the UK. Participating colonoscopists (N=28) were trained using the NBI International Colorectal Endoscopic (NICE) classification (relating to colour, vessel structure and surface pattern). By comparing the optical and histological findings in patients with only small polyps, test sensitivity was determined at the patient level using two thresholds: presence of adenoma and need for surveillance. Accuracy of identifying adenomatous polyps <10 mm was compared at the polyp level using hierarchical models, allowing determinants of accuracy to be explored.
Of 1688 patients recruited, 722 (42.8%) had polyps <10 mm with 567 (78.5%) having only polyps <10 mm. Test sensitivity (presence of adenoma, N=499 patients) by NBI optical diagnosis was 83.4% (95% CI 79.6% to 86.9%), significantly less than the 95% sensitivity (p<0.001) this study was powered to detect. Test sensitivity (need for surveillance) was 73.0% (95% CI 66.5% to 79.9%). Analysed at the polyp level, test sensitivity (presence of adenoma, N=1620 polyps) was 76.1% (95% CI 72.8% to 79.1%). In fully adjusted analyses, test sensitivity was 99.4% (95% CI 98.2% to 99.8%) if two or more NICE adenoma characteristics were identified. Neither colonoscopist expertise, confidence in diagnosis nor use of high definition colonoscopy independently improved test accuracy.
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