Intraoperative use of enhanced contact endoscopy for evaluation of laryngeal mucosal lesions, validation of ELS classification

Summary Introduction: Enhanced contact endoscopy (ECE) – combination of contact endoscopy and NBI (narrow-band imaging) or IMAGE1 S, is a noninvasive optical technique used for assessment of superfi cial vascular changes of mucosal lesions in high magnifi cation. Aim: The aim of our study was to evaluate the dia gnostic value of ECE in an intraoperative settlement and validation of the ELS classifi cation. Methods: Patients with laryngeal lesions underwent direct laryngoscopy with a structured assessment of the lesion using white light, NBI and ECE. Lesions were classified according to the European Laryngological Society Classifi cation that divides the vascular pattern changes into longitudinal (unsuspicious) and perpendicular (suspicious). Evaluation was correlated with histopathology. Results: 60 patients with 76 lesions were enrolled. Sensitivity, specifi city, positive predictive value (PPV), negative predictive value (NPV) and accuracy for NBI assessment reached 71.4%, 100%, 100%, 53.8% and 78.6%, resp.,  index of 0.556. Sensitivity, specifi city, PPV, NPV and accuracy for ECE reached 86.4%, 89.5%, 95.0%, 73.9% and 87.3%,  index of 0.716. Additional 20% (9/ 45) of the leukoplakias could be assessed with ECE compared to NBI. Conclusions: Our data support the assumption that ECE is a useful tool for pre-histological examination of mucosal lesions, however it cannot fully replace bio psy sampling. ECE shows higher accuracy in detecting malignant lesions compared to NBI and can be especially helpful in the assessment of vocal fold leukoplakia. Key words enhanced contact endoscopy – narrow-band imaging – laryngeal mucosal lesions – squamous cell carcinoma – leukoplakia