Ease of early gastric cancer demarcation recognition: a comparison of four magnifying endoscopy methods.
OBJECTIVE
Various techniques using magnifying endoscopy (ME) have been developed to enhance images of early gastric cancer (EGC) demarcations, which are often obscure. We investigated four ME methods to determine which is most effective in enhancing the recognition of EGC demarcations: conventional ME (CME), ME with narrow band imaging (NBI-ME), enhanced-magnification endoscopy with acetic acid (EME), and ME with NBI and acetic acid (NBI-EME).


METHODS
Thirty-seven successive patients having a total of 40 EGCs participated in the investigation. The endoscope was fixed and magnification images of EGC demarcations in each patient were recorded using four different ME methods (CME, NBI-ME, EME and NBI-EME). Eight experts and eight non-experts scored each of the four images of each lesion for ease of recognition of demarcation (1 to 4, with 4 being easiest).


RESULTS
The mean scores of expert and non-expert judges, respectively, for images acquired using each technique were: CME 1.23, 1.24; NBI-ME 2.61, 2.95; EME 2.62, 2.32 and NBI-EME 3.54, 3.50. There were significant differences between the mean scores for the four techniques (P < 0.0001) using one-way repeated-measures anova. In a Bonferroni's multiple comparison, the average scores (expert and non-expert) of images acquired using NBI-EME were significantly higher than those acquired using other methods; images acquired by NBI-ME or EME also scored significantly higher than those by CME. Non-experts also scored NBI-ME images significantly higher than CME and EME images.


CONCLUSIONS
Early gastric cancer demarcations were recognized most easily using NBI-EME, and more easily using EME or NBI-ME than CME.
Department of Hematology and Oncology, Mie University Graduate School of Medicine, Tsu, Mie 514-8507, Japan.
Shigenori
S
Kadowaki
Kyosuke
K
Tanaka
Hideki
H
Toyoda
Ryo
R
Kosaka
Ichiro
I
Imoto
Yasuhiko
Y
Hamada
Masaki
M
Katsurahara
Hiroyuki
H
Inoue
Masatoshi
M
Aoki
Tomohiro
T
Noda
Tomomi
T
Yamada
Yoshiyuki
Y
Takei
Naoyuki
N
Katayama
D019342:Acetic Acid; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D055088:Early Detection of Cancer; D005260:Female; D005773:Gastroscopy / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015588:Observer Variation; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013274:Stomach Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*; D014741:Video Recording
D019342:Acetic Acid