Published online May 16, 2020. doi: 10.4253/wjge.v12.i5.159
Peer-review started: February 18, 2020
First decision: March 28, 2020
Revised: April 12, 2020
Accepted: May 12, 2020
Article in press: May 12, 2020
Published online: May 16, 2020
Processing time: 87 Days and 10.4 Hours
Longstanding ulcerative colitis (UC) is associated with an increased risk of colonic neoplasia. Various endoscopic modalities, such as chromoendoscopy (CE), narrow band imaging (NBI) and random biopsy have been introduced for surveillance, however, there exists a paucity of direct comparisons between them. We aimed to conduct a network meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) performed for surveillance of neoplasia in UC.
To provide a comparative evaluation of the efficacy of the above-mentioned various modalities.
We searched MEDLINE/PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, Google Scholar and Cochrane Central Registry through May 2016 for RCTs evaluating the efficacy of endoscopic modalities for surveillance of neoplasia in UC. The primary outcomes of interest were dysplasia (low- or high-grade) detection rates per biopsy and per patient, and dysplasia numbers per patient. Studies were simultaneously analyzed using a random-effects network meta-analysis under the Bayesian framework to identify the modality with the highest dysplasia detection rate. The best ranking probability for the dysplasia detection rate was analyzed by surface under the cumulative ranking (SUCRA) technique.
Six prospective RCTs of a total 1038 patients were identified. We identified 4 different modalities; white light (WL) high definition (HD) or standard definition (SD), CE HD, and NBI HD. For dysplasia per biopsy, direct meta-analysis showed superiority of NBI HD over WL HD and CE HD over WL SD. Network meta-analysis demonstrated the rank order of best modality as NBI HD, CE HD, WL HD and WL SD with close SUCRA scores of the first two. For dysplasia per patient, direct meta-analyses showed equivocal results between each modality. Network meta-analysis demonstrated the rank order of best modality as WL HD, NBI HD, CE HD and WL SD with small differences of the SUCRA score among the first two. For dysplasia numbers per patient, direct meta-analysis showed superiority of CE HD over WL SD. Network meta-analysis demonstrated the rank order of best modality as WL HD, NBI HD, CE HD, and WL SD with small differences of the SUCRA score among the first three.
We demonstrated that there were small differences among WL HD, NBI HD, and CE HD, while WL SD was inferior, in detecting dysplasia in UC.
Core tip: Ulcerative colitis (UC) is associated with increased neoplasia risk. Chromoendoscopy (CE), narrow band imaging (NBI) and random biopsy are used for surveillance, but data is limited to conclude best surveillance rank order. We did a network meta-analysis of UC surveillance randomized controlled trials. We identified 4 modalities; white light (WL) high definition (HD) or standard definition (SD), CE HD, and NBI HD. Results showed no differences among WL HD, NBI HD, and CE HD, while WLSD was inferior. The use of HD colonoscopes with or without image enhancement may provide improved detection of dysplasia in UC surveillance.