Background and aim: During endoscopic ultrasound-guided fine needle aspiration biopsy (EUS-FNB), Franseen needles can help collect sufficient tissue to permit histopathological assessment. However, its efficacy might be limited by the size of the targeted lesion. This study aimed to evaluate the feasibility of histopathological assessment of small solid pancreatic lesions using a 22-gauge Franseen needle during EUS-FNB. Methods: This retrospective study evaluated data from all patients who underwent EUS-FNB using a Franseen needle for solid pancreatic lesions at the University of Toyama Hospital between June 2018 and April 2020. Results: The study included 159 patients who had 152 malignant lesions and 7 benign lesions. The malignant lesions included pancreatic cancers (n = 134), neuroendocrine neoplasms (n = 15), metastatic tumors (n = 2), and a solid pseudopapillary neoplasm (n = 1). The diagnostic accuracy of EUS-FNB (combining histology and cytology) was 98.7%. However, the histopathological diagnosis was only confirmed for 64.3% of small lesions (<10 mm), relative to 97.2% for larger lesions. Multivariate analysis also revealed that lesion size of <10 mm predicted a less accurate histopathological diagnosis (odds ratio: 6.97, 95% confidence interval: 1.02–47.67; p = 0.041). Further analyses revealed a failed histological diagnosis in 4 patients with lesions of <5 mm in size and accurate diagnoses in 9 out of 10 patients with lesions of 5–10 mm in size. Conclusions: The diagnostic accuracy for small lesions (<10 mm), especially for lesions of 10 mm). Furthermore, multivariate analysis revealed that only lesion size was an independent predictor of histopathological diagnosis accuracy.

Endoscopic ultrasound-guided fine-needle biopsy (EUS-FNB) enables easy and accurate pathological assessment. Here, we compared and assessed the area of samples on glass slides for three needle types: a 19-gauge Franseen needle (Acquire, Boston Scientific, Natick, MA, USA), a 22-gauge Franseen needle, and a 19-gauge fine-needle aspiration (FNA) needle (EZ Shot 3 Plus; Olympus, Tokyo, Japan). Among patients with suspected pancreatic cancer, with a ≥20 mm tumor located in the pancreatic body and tail, and who underwent EUS-FNA or FNB between June 2018 and March 2020, 10 were randomly selected to test each needle. The areas of histological tissue and blood clot samples were measured using the BZ-X800 imaging software (Keyence Corporation, Osaka, Japan). Baseline patient characteristics and pathological sample data showed no significant differences among the needles. The 19-gauge Franseen needle obtained significantly more histological tissue samples than the 19-gauge conventional needle (p = 0.010) and 22-gauge Franseen needle (p = 0.008). Conversely, there was no significant difference between the 19-gauge conventional needle and 22-gauge Franseen needle (p = 0.838) in this regard. The 19-gauge Franseen needle could collect more samples than the other needles, contributing to giving a more precise pathological diagnosis and more information, including genomic profiling.

This study aimed to assess the utility of the S-O clip during colorectal endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD). We conducted a retrospective study on 185 patients who underwent colorectal ESD from January 2015 to January 2020. The patients were divided into two groups: before and after the introduction of the S-O clip. Forty-two patients underwent conventional ESD (CO group) and 29 patients underwent ESD using the S-O clip (SO group). We compared the surgery duration, dissection speed, en bloc resection rate, and complication rate between both groups. Compared with the CO group, the SO group had a significantly shorter surgery duration (70.7 ± 37.9 min vs. 51.2 ± 18.6 min; p = 0.017), a significantly higher dissection speed (15.1 ± 9.0 min vs. 26.3 ± 13.8 min; p < 0.001), a significantly higher en bloc resection rate (80.9% vs. 98.8%; p ≤ 0.001), and a significantly lower perforation rate (4.3% vs. 1.3%). In the right colon, the surgery duration was significantly shorter and the dissection speed was significantly higher in the SO group than in the CO group. Moreover, the rate of en bloc resection improved significantly in the right colon. S-O clip-assisted ESD reduces the procedure time and improves the treatment effects, especially in the right colon.

A study of the changes in the cause of peptic ulcer bleeding

Background and study aims While gastric endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) has become a treatment with fewer complications, delayed bleeding remains a challenge. Post-ESD coagulation (PEC) is performed to prevent delayed bleeding. Therefore, we developed an artificial intelligence (AI) to detect vessels that require PEC in real time. Materials and methods Training data were extracted from 153 gastric ESD videos with sufficient images taken with a second-look endoscopy (SLE) and annotated as follows: (1) vessels that showed bleeding during SLE without PEC; (2) vessels that did not bleed during SLE with PEC; and (3) vessels that did not bleed even without PEC. The training model was created using Google Cloud Vertex AI and a program was created to display the vessels requiring PEC in real time using a bounding box. The evaluation of this AI was verified with 12 unlearned test videos, including four cases that required additional coagulation during SLE. Results The results of the test video validation indicated that 109 vessels on the ulcer required cauterization. Of these, 80 vessels (73.4%) were correctly determined as not requiring additional treatment. However, 25 vessels (22.9%), which did not require PEC, were overestimated. In the four videos that required additional coagulation in SLE, AI was able to detect all bleeding vessels. Conclusions The effectiveness and safety of this endoscopic treatment-assisted AI system that identifies visible vessels requiring PEC should be confirmed in future studies.

Although artificial ulcers generally heal faster than Helicobacter pylori-related or nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug-related peptic ulcers, endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD)-induced gastric ulcers are usually treated with a proton pump inhibitor (PPI) for 4–8 weeks. The effect of oral administration of a PPI for 1 week on ESD-induced gastric ulcers has not yet been evaluated. In the present study, we evaluated the efficacy of oral PPI for 1 week in patients with ESD-induced ulcers. We selected 45 patients who underwent ESD for gastric mucosal tumors between June 2005 and July 2006 at Toyama University Hospital, and who met our inclusion criteria. All patients received omeprazole intravenously for 2 days after ESD and then orally for 1 week to prevent bleeding. Twenty two patients received no further omeprazole therapy (1-week group) and the rest received omeprazole orally for 7 more weeks (8-week group). Follow-up endoscopy was performed at 1 day, 4 weeks, and 8 weeks after ESD. We compared the ulcer healing rates between both groups. There were no significant differences between the groups in the ulcer-healing rate, because ulcers healed in 22 (96%) and 20 (91%) patients from the 8-week and 1-week groups, respectively. In our study, oral administration of omeprazole for 1 week was sufficient to achieve healing of ESD-induced artificial gastric ulcers. A larger prospective trial will be required to confirm these findings.