Diagnosis of gastric inflammation and malignancy in endoscopic biopsies based on Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy.

Background: Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy is an effective tool for investigation of chemical changes at the molecular level. We previously demonstrated that FT-IR spectroscopy can reliably distinguish multiple types of carcinoma from healthy tissue. Because various stomach diseases are common, it is important to explore a noninvasive and rapid method to detect malignancy and gastritis in endoscopic biopsies. Our aim was to classify endoscopic biopsies into healthy, gastritis, and malignancy through the use of FT-IR spectroscopy.

Methods: A total of 103 endoscopic samples, including 19 cases of cancer, 35 cases of chronic atrophic gastritis, 29 cases of chronic superficial gastritis, and 20 healthy tissue samples, were obtained at the First Hospital of Xi'an Jiaotong University, China. A modified attenuated total reflectance accessory was linked to a WQD-500 FT-IR spectrometer for biopsy measurement. The spectral characteristics for different types of tissues were correlated with the corresponding pathology results. The gastric biopsies were classified by FT-IR spectroscopy and a discriminant analysis method.

Results: There were significant differences in the FT-IR spectra of four types of gastric biopsies. The discriminant analysis results demonstrated that the sensitivity of FT-IR detection for healthy, superficial gastritis, atrophic gastritis, and gastric cancer was 90%, 90%, 66%, 74%, respectively, which could help satisfy clinical diagnostic requirements.

Conclusion: FT-IR spectroscopy can distinguish disease processes in gastric endoscopic biopsies.