Narrow-band imaging comparable to white light colonoscopy in differentiating colorec...( OAK BROOK Ill. December 15 2008 Re...),Health

OAK BROOK, Ill. December 15, 2008 Researchers from Yale University School of Medicine compared narrow-band imaging (NBI) without high magnification to standard white light colonoscopy in differentiating colorectal polyps during real-time colonoscopy and found that NBI was not more accurate than white light colonoscopy. The study found, however, a significant learning curve for these experienced endoscopists using NBI as a new diagnostic tool. Once this learning curve was achieved, NBI performed significantly better. The study appears in the December issue of GIE: Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, the monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal of the American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ASGE).

Endoscopy is a procedure that uses an endoscope -- a thin, flexible tube with a light and a lens on the end to look into the esophagus, stomach, duodenum, small intestine, colon, or rectum, in order to diagnose or treat a condition. There are many types of endoscopy, including colonoscopy, sigmoidoscopy, gastroscopy, enteroscopy, and esophogogastroduodenoscopy (EGD). Colonoscopy is frequently used to screen for colorectal cancer, which most typically develops from polyps. The two main polyp types are adenomatous, which are precancerous and hence require removal, and nonadenomatous, which do not have a high likelihood of developing into cancer.

Narrow-band imaging is a new optical technology that modifies white light by using only certain wavelengths to enhance the image. The technology provides more visual detail of the lining of the colon (including polyps) and of the small blood vessels near the surface of the polyps. At the present time, there is no widely adopted, easily applied method for distinguishing between adenomatous (potentially pre-cancerous polyps) and nonadenomatous polyps during real-time colonoscopy. From a practical standpoint, the ability to distinguish the two would allow the endoscopist to remove only those polyps with p
'/>"/>