Identification of volumetric laser endomicroscopy features of colon polyps with histologic correlation.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: There are limited data on the use of volumetric laser endomicroscopy (VLE) for imaging colon polyps. Our aim was to identify VLE features of colon polyps.

METHODS: A total of 45 patients were included; 43 underwent endoscopic mucosal resection of colorectal polyps 2 cm or greater. These polyps were then scanned with VLE immediately after resection. Two patients who underwent partial colonic resection served as controls.

RESULTS: Forty-three polyps were included with review of matching histology: 3 intramucosal cancer (IMCA), 5 tubular adenoma (TAs)/tubulovillous adenoma (TVA) with high-grade dysplasia (HGD), 9 TVA with only low-grade dysplasia (LGD), 5 serrated adenoma, and 21 TA with LGD. All TAs and TVAs were hyper-reflective compared with normal tissue. Effacement occurred in 82.4% (14/17) of the colonic polyps with advanced pathology (TVA with HGD/IMCA) compared with 11.6% (3/26) with non-advanced pathology (TA with LGD and serrated adenoma) (P < .0001). Forty-seven percent (8/17) of polyps with advanced pathology had greater than 5 glands on VLE compared with none in the non-advanced pathology group (P = .0001). An irregular surface mainly occurred in polyps with high-grade pathology (HGD/IMCA) versus TAs. Eighty-eight percent of polyps with HGD/IMC had an irregular surface (7/8) versus 6% (2/35) of TAs (P < .0001).

CONCLUSIONS: In this ex vivo clinicopathologic study, we show that there are distinct VLE features of colon polyps that may help identify polyps or features of a higher-grade lesion. This may have implications for possible in vivo application to aid in dysplasia or polyp detection.