Confocal laser endomicroscopy for characterization of Crohn's disease-associated duodenitis

Modern Endoscopic Imaging in Diagnosis and Surveillance of Inflammatory Bowel Disease Patients

Endoscopy remains the most important diagnostic and monitoring modality in the management of inflammatory bowel disease. Advances in imaging have progressively added new tools into the armamentarium of endoscopists with the goal of more accurate, sensitive, and accessible visual diagnoses for the benefit of patients with gastrointestinal diseases. Here, we review the relevant literature regarding commonly used endoscopic techniques (dye-based and digital chromoendoscopy, high-definition endoscopy, capsule endoscopy, and endosonography), as well as advanced and experimental technologies (full-spectrum endoscopy, endocytoscopy, autofluorescence, laser endoscopy, and endomicroscopy, including molecular imaging), applicable to inflammatory bowel diseases and emerging for implementation into everyday practice. Additionally, we discuss future directions and techniques as candidates for a superior inflammation imaging in the diagnosis and prediction of therapeutic response.

Development and Validation of a Confocal Laser Endomicroscopy-Based Score for In Vivo Assessment of Mucosal Healing in Ulcerative Colitis Patients

BACKGROUND

Endoscopic monitoring is fundamental for evaluating the therapeutic response in IBD, but a validated endomicroscopic mucosal healing (MH) score is not available to date. However, confocal laser endomicroscopy (CLE) might define MH more precisely than conventional endoscopy. The major aim was to establish and validate an MH score for ulcerative colitis (UC), based on CLE.

METHODS

In an initial pilot study (n = 10), various CLE changes were analyzed for identification of reproducible criteria for establishing a CLE score. Four reproducible CLE criteria were implemented in a following validation study. Subsequently, active UC patients (n = 23, Mayo score ≥6) were prospectively included and underwent colonoscopy with CLE before and after 3 anti-TNF applications. Patients were clinically followed over a period of 3 years. The endomicroscopic MH score (eMHs; range, 0-4) was compared with histopathology and endoscopy scores from the same colonic location.

RESULTS

The eMHs showed high sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy values (100% with 95% confidence interval [CI] of 15.81%-100%; 93.75% with 95% CI of 69.77%-99.84%, and 94.44%, respectively). The eMHs showed a good correlation with the histological Gupta score (rs = 0.82, P < 0.0001) and the endoscopic Mayo subscore (rs = 0.81%, P < 0.0001). Sixty percent of therapy responders presented an eMHs <1, which translated into long-lasting clinical remission and reduced hospitalization, steroid, and surgery need.

CONCLUSIONS

CLE can accurately assess MH based on the newly developed and statistically validated eMHs in UC, and it is superior in predicting the long-lasting clinical outcome based on both descriptive and functional barrier imaging (NCT01417728).