Retrospective Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2019. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Mar 21, 2019; 25(11): 1378-1386
Published online Mar 21, 2019. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v25.i11.1378
Early gastric cancer diagnostic ability of ultrathin endoscope loaded with laser light source
Takuto Suzuki, Yoshiyasu Kitagawa, Rino Nankinzan, Taketo Yamaguchi
Takuto Suzuki, Yoshiyasu Kitagawa, Rino Nankinzan, Department of Endoscopy, Chiba Cancer Center, Chiba 260-8717, Japan
Taketo Yamaguchi, Department of Gastroenterology, Chiba Cancer Center, Chiba 260-8717, Japan
Author contributions: Suzuki T designed the research; Suzuki T, Kitagawa Y, Nankinzan R and Yamaguchi T performed the research; Suzuki T, Kitagawa Y and Nankinzan R analyzed the data; Suzuki T wrote the paper.
Institutional review board statement: The study was reviewed and approved by the Chiba Cancer Center Institutional Review Board.
Informed consent statement: All study participants provided informed written consent prior to study enrollment.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.
Open-Access: This is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Takuto Suzuki, MD, PhD, Doctor, Department of Endoscopy, Chiba Cancer Center, 666-2 Nitonachou, Chuo-ku, Chiba 260-8717, Japan. taksuzuki@chiba-cc.jp
Telephone: +81-43-2645431 Fax: +81-43-2628680
Received: December 3, 2018
Peer-review started: December 3, 2018
First decision: January 30, 2019
Revised: February 13, 2019
Accepted: February 22, 2019
Article in press: February 22, 2019
Published online: March 21, 2019
Processing time: 107 Days and 2.2 Hours
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
Research background

An ultrathin endoscope has low luminous intensity, low image resolution, and difficulty in operation. However, the ultrathin endoscopy is a useful tool for screening endoscopy because of its low invasion.

Research motivation

Recently endoscopic technology has markedly advanced. The improvement of the diagnostic ability of ultrathin endoscope has also improved. Evaluating the diagnostic ability of the ultrathin endoscope is warranted.

Research objectives

In this study, early gastric cancer diagnostic ability of an ultrathin endoscope loaded with a laser light source was compared with that of the conventional endoscope.

Research methods

The study subjects were 375 consecutive patients who underwent endoscopy at our hospital for post-endoscopic submucosal dissection follow-up of gastric cancer from January to August 2018. During endoscopy, the ultrathin endoscope was used in 140 patients (37.3%), and the conventional endoscope was used in 235 patients (62.7%). Patient background was adjusted using the propensity score matching method, and gastric cancer detection ability was evaluated in the two groups.

Research results

The gastric cancer detection rate was 7.8% in the ultrathin endoscope group and 7.0% in the conventional endoscope group, and the mean intragastric observation time was 4.1 ± 1.7 min in the ultrathin endoscope group and 4.1 ± 1.9 min in the conventional endoscope group, showing no significant differences between the groups. Moreover, the biopsy implementation rate was 31.8% in the ultrathin endoscope group and 41.1% in the conventional endoscope group, and the biopsy prediction rate was 17.9% and 13.2%, respectively, showing no significant differences between the groups.

Research conclusions

The gastric cancer diagnostic ability of the ultrathin endoscope loaded with a laser light source was comparable to that of the conventional endoscope. The observation time was also comparable. Thus, endoscopy using the ultrathin endoscope loaded with the laser light source would be the first option in screening examinations of gastric cancer due to its low invasion.