The Significance of a Pale Area Via Flexible Spectral Imaging Color Enhancement in the Diagnosis of Esophageal Precancerous Lesions and Early-stage Squamous Cancer.

GOALS: The main aim of this study was to investigate the significance of a pale area via flexible spectral imaging color enhancement (FICE) in the diagnosis of esophageal dysplasia and cancer.

BACKGROUND: The early diagnosis of esophageal squamous cancer is challenging, and the indication of Lugol's chromoendoscopy has not yet been well established.

STUDY: The esophageal mucosa of patients at our endoscopic center were sequentially evaluated with white-light endoscopy and FICE during insertion of the endoscope, followed by staining with Lugol's solution during withdrawal. Patients were divided into 2 groups depending on whether esophageal leukoplakia was detected by white-light endoscopy and 2 groups depending on whether a pale area was detected by FICE. We compared cases of patients with abnormal iodine staining, and cases of dysplasia or cancer in esophageal leukoplakia-or pale area-positive and negative groups.

RESULTS: Cases of abnormal staining in the esophageal leukoplakia-or pale area-positive group were far more numerous than cases without esophageal leukoplakia or pale area, respectively (P=0.000). Cases of esophageal dysplasia and cancer in the esophageal leukoplakia-or pale area-positive group were far more numerous than cases without esophageal leukoplakia or pale area, respectively (P=0.000).

CONCLUSIONS: Iodine staining should be performed in patients with esophageal leukoplakia or pale areas. Esophageal dysplasia and early-stage cancer were more easily detected in those with esophageal leukoplakia or pale areas.This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives License 4.0 (CCBY-NC-ND), where it is permissible to download and share the work provided it is properly cited. The work cannot be changed in any way or used commercially without permission from the journal. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.