Endoscopic Raman spectroscopy enables objective diagnosis of dysplasia in Barrett's esophagus.

Background: Early detection and targeted endoscopic resection of Barrett's esophagus-associated high-grade dysplasia (HGD) can prevent progression to invasive esophageal malignancy. Raman spectroscopy, a highly sophisticated analytical technique, has been translated into an endoscopic tool to facilitate rapid, objective diagnosis of dysplasia in the esophagus.

Objective: To evaluate the ability of endoscopic Raman spectroscopy (ERS) to objectively detect esophageal HGD and adenocarcinoma.

Assessment of a custom-built Raman spectroscopic probe for diagnosis of early oesophageal neoplasia.

We evaluate the potential of a custom-built fiber-optic Raman probe, suitable for in vivo use, to differentiate between benign, metaplastic (Barrett's oesophagus), and neoplastic (dysplastic and malignant) oesophageal tissue ex vivo on short timescales. We measured 337 Raman spectra (λ(ex)=830 nm; P(ex)=60 mW; t=1 s) using a confocal probe from fresh (298) and snap-frozen (39) oesophageal tissue collected during surgery or endoscopy from 28 patients. Spectra were correlated with histopathology and used to construct a multivariate classification model which was tested using leave one tissue site out cross-validation in order to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of the probe system.