Observational Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2019. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Apr 28, 2019; 25(16): 1997-2009
Published online Apr 28, 2019. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v25.i16.1997
Assessment of chronic radiation proctopathy and radiofrequency ablation treatment follow-up with optical coherence tomography angiography: A pilot study
Osman Oguz Ahsen, Kaicheng Liang, Hsiang-Chieh Lee, Zhao Wang, James G Fujimoto, Hiroshi Mashimo
Osman Oguz Ahsen, Kaicheng Liang, Hsiang-Chieh Lee, Zhao Wang, James G Fujimoto, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, United States
Hiroshi Mashimo, Gastroenterology Section, VA Boston Healthcare System, Harvard School of Medicine, Boston, MA 02130, United States
Author contributions: Fujimoto JG, Mashimo H, Ahsen OO designed the study; Ahsen OO, Liang K, Lee HC developed the OCT imaging technology; Ahsen OO, Liang K, Lee HC, Wang Z collected the data; Ahsen OO and Liang K analyzed the OCT and OCTA data; Fujimoto JG and Mashimo H obtained funding for the study; Ahsen OO, Fujimoto JG and Mashimo H wrote the manuscript; all authors read the manuscript; Fujimoto JG and Mashimo H are principal investigators for this study.
Supported by facility supports of the VA Boston Healthcare System, NIH grants R01-CA075289-21 (JGF and HM), Air Force Office of Scientific Research contract FA9550-15-1-0473 (JGF).
Institutional review board statement: This study was conducted under protocols at the Veteran Affairs Boston Healthcare System (VABHS) Institutional Review Board (IRB), Harvard Medical School (HMS) Office of Human Research Administration (OHRA) and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Committee on the Use of Humans as Experimental Subjects (COUHES).
Informed consent statement: All study participants provided informed written consent prior to study enrollment.
Conflict-of-interest statement: We have no relevant financial relationships to disclose.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which 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/
STROBE statement: Guidelines of the STROBE Statement have been adopted.
Corresponding author: Hiroshi Mashimo, MD, MSc, PhD, Associate Professor, Research Scientist, Gastroenterology Section, VA Boston Healthcare System, Harvard School of Medicine, 150 South Huntington Ave., Boston, MA 02130, United States. hmashimo@hms.harvard.edu
Telephone: +1-857-2035640 Fax: +1-857-2035666
Received: November 10, 2018
Peer-review started: November 12, 2018
First decision: December 28, 2018
Revised: February 12, 2019
Accepted: February 15, 2019
Article in press: February 16, 2019
Published online: April 28, 2019
Processing time: 166 Days and 7 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: In this study we use a prototype ultrahigh-speed optical coherence tomography (OCT) system and OCT angiography (OCTA) to perform depth-resolved visualization of microvasculature in the mucosal and submucosal layers of the rectum without requiring injected dyes. Abnormal distorted honeycomb patterns and ectatic/tortuous microvasculature in the rectal mucosa and heterogenous enlarged arterioles and venules > 200 μm in diameter in the submucosa are associated with chronic radiation proctopathy and resolved with radiofrequency ablation treatment. OCTA/OCT is a promising tool for investigating the pathophysiology of chronic radiation proctopathy and further studies are warranted to understand if it can help in clinical management.