Purpose: Clinical application of narrow band imaging facilitates diagnosis of esophageal neoplasia. However, no previous investigation has been conducted on magnifying endoscopy combined with narrow band imaging in detection of minimal superficial esophageal neoplasia, which is defined as neoplasia <10 mm in diameter. The aim of this retrospective study was to evaluate the usefulness of this combined technique in the differential diagnosis of minimal superficial esophageal neoplasia.

Methods: Between January 2005 and November 2011, 53 minimal superficial esophageal neoplasias in 40 patients were diagnosed by screening upper gastrointestinal endoscopy with narrow band imaging at our hospital. We investigated findings including brownish dots, brownish epithelium, and demarcation line of minimal superficial esophageal neoplasia diagnosed histopathologically as low-grade intraepithelial neoplasia, high-grade intraepithelial neoplasia, and squamous cell carcinoma.

Results: Significantly more brownish dots (P < 0.05) and brownish epithelium (P < 0.005) were observed in intraepithelial papillary capillary loops in high-grade neoplasia compared with low-grade neoplasia. When minimal superficial esophageal neoplasia was diagnosed as high-grade intraepithelial neoplasia or squamous cell carcinoma, sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value were 88.9, 42.9, 44.4, and 88.2%, respectively, for brownish dots; 94.4, 51.4, 50.0, and 94.7%, respectively, for brownish epithelium; and 66.7, 62.9, 48.0, and 78.6%, respectively, for demarcation line.

Conclusions: The combined technique was useful in the differential diagnosis of minimal superficial esophageal neoplasia.