Abstract
Background and study aims Virtual chromoendoscopy with Fuji Intelligent Color Enhancement (FICE) has never
been studied in prospective trials of endoscopic surveillance for ulcerative colitis
(UC). We compared FICE and white light endoscopy (WLE) in differentiation of visible
lesions in UC.
Patients and methods In a prospective parallel study, we compared consecutive outpatients with UC submitted
to surveillance colonoscopy with FICE or WLE. At least one visible polypoid or non-polypoid
lesion for each patient was required. Random biopsies from normal mucosa, targeted
biopsies or removal of suspected neoplastic lesions and targeted biopsies of unsuspected
lesions were performed. In the FICE arm, neoplasia was suspected according to a modified
Kudo classification (FICE-KUDO/inflammatory bowel disease [IBD]). Sensitivity (SE),
specificity (SP), positive and negative likelihood ratios (LR) and negative predictive
value (NPV) were analyzed.
Results One hundred patients were submitted to FICE (n = 46) or WLE (n = 54). Twenty-two
patients (11 in WLE, 11 in FICE) had a least one neoplastic lesion. No neoplasia was
found in random biopsies. Among 275 lesions, 17 of 136 by FICE and 27 of 139 by WLE
were suspected neoplasia, but 28 (14 in each arm) were true neoplastic lesions. The
accuracy of FICE-KUDO/IBD vs WLE (per lesion) was: SE 93 % vs 64 % (P = 0.065), SP 97 % vs 86 % (P = 0.002), positive-LR 28.3 vs 4.5 (P = 0.001), negative-LR 0.07 vs 0.42 (P = 0.092), NPV 99 % vs 96 % (P = 0.083). FICE-KUDO/IBD detected more non-polypoid lesions than WLE (P = 0.016).
Conclusions Targeted biopsies of polypoid and non-polypoid lesions, using the modified Kudo classification
with FICE are more accurate than WLE in UC surveillance.