Abstract
Objectives: To assess the feasibility of using Image1 S™
endoscopic enhancement system for discrimination of the vascular
patterns in laryngeal lesions.
Design: Forty patients presenting with benign, dysplastic and
malign laryngeal lesions were examined with Image1 S system. The
vascular patterns were classified by a group of the authors/ according
to the European Laryngological Society (ELS) guideline, as perpendicular
or longitudinal, in all lesions. Endoscopic images of the vascular
patterns are evaluated through an online survey by a group of
otolaryngologists with different levels of clinical expertise. The
qualitative evaluation of the vascular patterns in two groups were
compared to investigate the consistency. The relationship between the
vascular patterns and the pathological results was statistically
analyzed.
Results: Eleven patient presented with benign, 13 patients with
dysplastic and 16 patients with malignant pathology. The vascular
patterns were longitudinal in 9 lesions, perpendicular in 28 lesions and
undetectable in 3 lesions. The relevance between the vascularization
pattern and the pathological diagnosis was found to be significant
(χ2= 20.30, p < 0,001). The qualitative
evaluation of the vascular patterns by the two groups of observers was
significantly close to each other (𝜅=0.63). The survey also showed that
spectral modes producing high contrast images were preferred by 81,9%
of the participants over white light images.
Conclusion: This study demonstrated the usefulness and
feasibility of Image1 S endoscopic enhancement system to predict the
diagnosis from vascular changes in laryngeal lesions.
Key Words: dysplasia, image enhancement systems, Image1 S™,
laryngeal endoscopy, longitudinal vascular pattern, perpendicular
vascular pattern