Clinical utility of capsule endoscopy with flexible spectral imaging color enhancement for diagnosis of small bowel lesions

Abstract

Background and study aims: The clincial utility of computed vitrual chromoendoscopy with flexible spectral imaging color enhancement (FICE) in capsule endoscopy (CE) remains contraversial. To clarify the clinical utility of FICE-enhanced CE in evaluating small bowel lesions, we quantitatively assessed white light (WL), FICE, and blue mode (BM) images and examined the sensitivity of these 3 imaging modes of small-bowel lesions form patients who underwent CE. Methods: teh CIELAB color difference and visual analogue scales (VAS) were measured in 261 CE images (3 different lesion categories) using WL and FICE set 1, 2, 3, and BM images, respectively. Three endoscopists reviewed CE videos with WL, 3 FICE mode settings and BM, and compared the sensitivity and detectability for small intestinal diseases from 50 patients who underwent CE. Results: In the assessment if visibility in the 152 vascular lesion images, the CIELAB color difference and VAS of FICE set 1, 2, and BM images were significantly higher than that of WL images, in 88 erosion/ulceration imgaes, the CIELAB color difference and VAS of FICE set 1 and 2 images were significantly higher than that of WL images. In 21 tumor images, there were no significant differences in CIELAB color difference among these modalities. When analyzed on a per-patient basis, FICE settings 1 and 3 had the highest sensitivity (100%) and specificity (97.3-100%) for vascular lesions. As for erosive/ulcerative lesions, FICE setting 2 had the highest sensitivity (100%) and specificity (97.2%). For tumors or polyps, WL had the highest sensitivity (90.9%) and specificity (87.1%). In per-lesion analysis, FICE settings 1 and 2 showed significantly superior detection ability over WL for vascular lesions. In the detection of erosive/ulcerative lesions, FICE setting 2 was significantly superior to WL. In tumor images, there was no significant improvement with any of the settings relative to WL images. Conclusion: FICE is the most useful for improving CE images quality and detection in cases of angioectasia and erosion/ulceration of the small intestine.