Narrow band imaging and high definition television in the assessment of laryngeal cancer: a prospective study on 279 patients

Narrow band imaging (NBI) is an optical technique in which a filtered light reveals superficial carcinomas in view of their neoangiogenic pattern. The accuracy of NBI is implemented by combining it with a high definition television (HDTV) camera. The aim of this study was to prospectively evaluate the diagnostic gain of NBI and HDTV in the assessment of laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma (LSCC). Between April 2007 and December 2008, we analyzed by NBI with or without HDTV 279 patients divided in two groups: Group A included 96 patients affected by LSCC and Group B included 183 subjects under follow-up after treatment for the same disease. Overall, 50 of 279 patients (18%) showed “suspicious” NBI findings histologically confirmed as neoplastic. The sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, positive and negative predictive rates of flexible NBI, HDTV with white light, and HDTV with NBI in both groups confirmed the value of these two technologies. In the pre- and intraoperative settings, NBI with or without HDTV provided better definition of tumor staging and surgical margins. NBI has also a role in the postoperative setting, due to its ability in early detection of persistences, recurrences, and metachronous tumors.