Advanced Imaging in Colon.
Colonoscopy is widely used for colon cancer screening. This is to detect polyp and resect them before they go on to become cancer. However, white light colonoscopy cannot differentiate the histology of the resected polyp accurately.
Advanced imaging in colonoscopy was developed in view of improving the standards in screening for colorectal cancer. One of the aims of advanced imaging in colonoscopy was to accurately characterize the polyps as adenoma or hyperplastic.
Better characterization will help in ‘resect and discard practice’ for adenoma polyps and for ‘diagnose and leave’ for distal colon hyperplastic polyps where in an endoscopist can predict histology accurately in real time without the need for the histopathologist to make the diagnosis.
This method of predicting histology is also known as ‘endohistology’ or ‘optical histology’. This makes screening colonoscopy more efficient and a less expensive affair at an estimated savings of $33 million annually in screening colonoscopy.
Also, there will be a decreased risk of perforation and bleeding by avoiding unnecessary
polypectomies of hyperplastic polyp from distal colon. Therefore, the aim of advanced imaging is to assist colonoscopy in making it efficient, inexpensive and safe with an ultimate goal to decrease colorectal cancer.
Gastro Open J. 2017; SE(2): S1-S5. doi: 10.17140/GOJ-SE-2-101
