Observational Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2021. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastrointest Endosc. Nov 16, 2021; 13(11): 555-564
Published online Nov 16, 2021. doi: 10.4253/wjge.v13.i11.555
Needle-based confocal endomicroscopy in the discrimination of mucinous from non-mucinous pancreatic cystic lesions
Helga Bertani, Raffaele Pezzilli, Flavia Pigò, Mauro Bruno, Claudio De Angelis, Guido Manfredi, Gabriele Delconte, Rita Conigliaro, Elisabetta Buscarini
Helga Bertani, Flavia Pigò, Rita Conigliaro, Gastroenterology and Digestive Endoscopy Unit, Azienda Ospedaliero Universitaria Policlinico di Modena, Modena 41124, Italy
Raffaele Pezzilli, Department of Internal Medicine, Policlinico S.Orsola Malpighi, Bologna 40121, Italy
Mauro Bruno, Claudio De Angelis, Gastroenterology and Digestive Endoscopy Unit, AOU Città della Salute e della Scienza, University of Turin, Turin 10100, Italy
Guido Manfredi, Elisabetta Buscarini, Gastroenterology and Digestive Endoscopy Department, Ospedale Maggiore, Crema 26013, Italy
Gabriele Delconte, Department of Diagnostic Endoscopy and Endoscopic Surgery, Istituto Nazionale Tumori, Milano 20019, Italy
Author contributions: Bertani H and Buscarini E conceived the study; Pezzilli R and Pigò F conducted the statistical analyses; Bertani H and Pigò F drafted the manuscript; Bruno M, De Angelis C, Manfredi G and Delconte G collected the data; Conigliaro R and Buscarini E reviewed the manuscript.
Institutional review board statement: The study was carried out in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and was approved by Ethical Committee of Baggiovara Hospital in Modena (Prot. 16/11/2015 prat n 4327).
Informed consent statement: All patients received written information about the study with results and possible complications. They all provide informed consent, as a negation of a written informed consent resulted in exclusion of the patient from the study.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
Data sharing statement: The dataset is available. For more information please contact Pigo.flavia@aou.mo.it. We can provide the anonymized version.
STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE Statement-checklist of items, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the STROBE Statement-checklist of items.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Helga Bertani, MD, Academic Research, Gastroenterology and Digestive Endoscopy Unit, Azienda Ospedaliero Universitaria Policlinico di Modena, Via del Pozzo 71, Modena 41124, Italy. bertani.helga@aou.mo.it
Received: February 23, 2021
Peer-review started: February 23, 2021
First decision: June 17, 2021
Revised: June 25, 2021
Accepted: September 6, 2021
Article in press: September 6, 2021
Published online: November 16, 2021
Core Tip

Core Tip: Pancreatic cystic lesions are considered a precursor of pancreatic cancer. Needle-based confocal endomicroscopy is an imaging technique that enables visualization of the mucosal layer to a micron resolution. Endoscopic ultrasound with fine-needle aspiration is the most accurate procedure for identifying pancreatic cystic lesions, as it combines cytology with analysis of intracystic carcinoembryonic antigen level, although its accuracy is low. Needle-based confocal endomicroscopy has demonstrated promising results.