Evaluation of narrow band imaging for diagnosis of unilateral nasal lesions.

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the effect of narrow band imaging (NBI) examination on differentiating diagnosis between benign and malignant neoplasms involving nasal cavity. A retrospective study was conducted to analyse cases from January 2018 to December 2019 at a single centre. A total of 188 consecutive patients who were newly diagnosed with lesions in unilateral nasal cavity underwent complete examination with white light endoscopy (WLE) and NBI endoscopy. Biopsy specimens were harvested from the target lesions and sent to the pathologist for definite diagnosis. Participants with a history of congenital malformation, trauma and surgery in nasal cavity were excluded from the study. Endoscopic diagnosis was assessed using sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, positive and negative predictive values (PPV and NPV, respectively). In identifying benign and malignant lesions of nasal cavity, NBI had a significant higher sensitivity (92.7% vs 70.7%, P=.020) and NPV (98% vs 92.3%, P=.032) than WLE, but there were no significant differences between NBI and WLE in specificity (98.6% vs 97.3%, P=.684), accuracy (97.3% vs 91.5%, P=.416) and PPV (95% vs 87.9%, P=.400). NBI as an emerging technique can improve the diagnostic accuracy by distinguishing benign and malignant lesions in nasal cavity and remains a promising and helpful adjunct to the endoscopy techniques.