Diagnostic Approach to Indeterminate Biliary Stricture / 대한췌담도학회지

Accurate diagnosis of biliary strictures is challenging and it commonly necessitates a multidisciplinary approach. There has been a great advancement of endoscopic techniques in tissue acquisition, laboratory tests, and imaging studies. Indeterminate biliary strictures are defined as strictures of no identifiable etiology despite extensive evaluation. Imaging modalities such as magnetic resonance imaging, magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography, multi-detector computed tomography play a great role in evaluating the level, degree, length of biliary strictures and presence of a mass. Early and accurate diagnosis as malignant stricture can determine not only optimal timing of surgery, but also potential timely chemotherapy. No assertive diagnostic modalities to distinguish benign from malignant strictures is yet established. This article reviews various etiologies of biliary strictures and discusses the laboratory evaluation, imaging modalities and promising endoscopic work-up with biopsy to improve the diagnostic sensitivity.

Spyglass visual impression and Spybite targeted biopsies for diagnosis of biliary strictures of unknown reasons: a meta-analysis / 中华消化内镜杂志

Objective To study the diagnostic value of Spyglass visual impression and Spybite targeted biopsies for biliary strictures of unknown reasons. Methods Several Chinese and English databases were electronically searched for studies on biliary strictures diagnosed with Spyglass visual impression and Spybite targeted biopsies compared with golden standard ( pathological biopsy, autopsy and long-term clinical follow-up) . The methodological quality of the included studies was assessed according to QUADAS-2 items. The software Meta-DiSc ( version 1. 4 ) was used to conduct pooling on sensitivity, specificity, positive likelihood radio, negative likelihood radio and diagnostic odds ratio ( DOR ) . Heterogeneity test was performed and the summary receiver operating characteristic curve ( SROC ) was drawn for area under the curve ( AUC) . Results A total of 12 studies met the inclusion criteria, involving 532 patients who received Spyglass visual impression and 525 who received Spybite targeted biopsies. The combined specificity, sensitivity, positive likelihood ratio, negative likelihood ratio and DOR were 0. 90 (95％CI:0. 85-0. 94), 0. 89 (95％CI:0. 85-0. 93), 7. 12 (95％CI: 4. 36-11. 64), 0. 12 (95％CI:0. 07-0. 22)and 82. 40 (95％CI:33. 73-201. 28)for Spyglass visual impression, and 0. 98 (95％CI:0. 96-1. 00), 0. 66 (95％CI:0. 60-0. 71), 13. 29 (95％CI:6. 92-25. 53), 0. 37 (95％CI:0. 28-0. 47)and 51. 05 (95％CI:23. 58-110. 53) for Spybite targeted biopsies, respectively. The AUC on the SROC of Spyglass visual impression and Spybite targeted biopsies were 0. 9574 and 0. 9398, respectively. Conclusion Spyglass visual impression is useful for detecting malignant lesion, whereas Spybite targeted biopsies is better at confirming malignant diagnosis, which indicates combination of the two methods have good diagnostic value for indeterminate biliary strictures, but their negative results are not perfect in excluding biliary cancer.

A Review of Probe-Based Confocal Laser Endomicroscopy for Pancreaticobiliary Disease

Confocal laser endomicroscopy (CLE) is a novel in vivo imaging technique that can provide real-time optical biopsies in the evaluation of pancreaticobiliary strictures and pancreatic cystic lesions (PCLs), both of which are plagued by low sensitivities of routine evaluation techniques. Compared to pathology alone, CLE is associated with a higher sensitivity and accuracy for the evaluation of indeterminate pancreaticobiliary strictures. CLE has the ability to determine the malignant potential of PCLs. As such, CLE can increase the diagnostic yield of endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography and endoscopic ultrasound, reducing the need for repeat procedures. It has been shown to be safe, with an adverse event rate of ≤1%. Published literature regarding its cost-effectiveness is needed.