Narrow band imaging in early diagnosis of laryngopharyngeal malignant and premalignant lesions

Abstract

Objectives: (1) To assess the diagnostic accuracy of narrow-band imaging (NBI) in the assessment of benign, premalignant, and malignant vocal fold lesions. (2) To evaluate the diagnostic value of NBI in detection of recurrence in upper aero-digestive tract malignancy.Methods: This was a prospective, observational study done between December 2018- November 2019 in the Department of Otolaryngology. One hundred six patients of suspected benign, premalignant, malignant lesions of larynx and hypopharynx along with recurrence cases of upper aerodigestive tract malignancy who have completed chemoradiation therapy. All patients were subjected to white light endoscopy (WLE), NBI, and biopsy for histopathological diagnosis. In WLE, laryngeal lesions were classified into three types: malignant, suspected malignant, and benign. NBI images were classified into 5 types based on the intrapapillary capillary loop (IPCL) patterns: Type I-IV were considered benign and Type V lesion was considered malignant. At the end, WLE and NBI findings were correlated with histopathological reports.Results: The diagnostic accuracy of NBI in diagnosing benign, premalignant, and malignant lesions is significantly better than WLE. The sensitivity of NBI in detecting malignant lesions is significantly greater than WLE. NBI has proved to be of great value in identifying lesions that could be missed by WLE alone, as combined sensitivity of NBI and WLE is significantly higher than WLE alone.Conclusion: NBI is an excellent technique for early detection of laryngopharyngeal malignancies with significantly higher sensitivity than WLE alone.