Image-enhanced endoscopy (IEE) plays an important role in the detection and further examination of gastritis and early gastric cancer (EGC). Linked color imaging (LCI) is also useful for detecting and evaluating gastritis, gastric intestinal metaplasia as a pre-cancerous lesion, and EGC. LCI provides a clear excellent endoscopic view of the atrophic border and the demarcation line under various conditions of gastritis. We could recognize gastritis as the lesions of the diffuse redness to purple color area with LCI. On the other hand, EGCs are recognized as the lesions of the orange-red, orange, or orange-white color area in the lesion of the purple color area, which is the surround atrophic mucosa with LCI. With further prospective randomized studies, we will be able to evaluate the diagnosis ability for EGC by IEE, and it will be necessary to evaluate the role of WLI/IEE and the additional effects of the diagnostic ability by adding IEE to WLI in future.
Keywords: diffuse redness; early gastric cancer; endoscopic imaging; gastric intestinal metaplasia; gastritis; image-enhanced endoscopy; lavender color sign; linked color imaging; the International Commission on Illumination (CIE) 1976 (L∗a∗b∗) color space.