(1) Background: This study aimed to evaluate the accuracy of predicting the histology of diminutive colonic polyps (DCPs) (≤5 mm) using i-scan optical enhancement (OE) based on the narrow-band imaging international colorectal endoscopic (NICE) classification. The study compared the diagnostic accuracy between experts who were already familiar with the NICE classification and trainees who were not, both before and after receiving brief training on the NICE classification. (2) Method: This prospective, single-center clinical trial was conducted at the Dong-A University Hospital from March 2020 to August 2020 and involved two groups of participants. The first group comprised two experienced endoscopists who were proficient in using i-scan OE and had received formal training in optical diagnosis and dye-less chromoendoscopy (DLC) techniques. The second group consisted of three endoscopists in the process of training in internal medicine at the Dong-A University Hospital. Each endoscopist examined the polyps and evaluated them using the NICE classification through i-scan OE. The results were not among the participants. Trained endoscopists were divided into pre- and post-training groups. (3) Results: During the study, a total of 259 DCPs were assessed using i-scan OE by the two expert endoscopists. They made real-time histological predictions according to the NICE classification criteria. For the trainee group, before training, the area under the receiver operating characteristic curves (AUROCs) for predicting histopathological results using i-scan OE were 0.791, 0.775, and 0.818. However, after receiving training, the AUROCs improved to 0.935, 0.949, and 0.963, which were not significantly different from the results achieved by the expert endoscopists. (4) Conclusions: This study highlights the potential of i-scan OE, along with the NICE classification, in predicting the histopathological results of DCPs during colonoscopy. In addition, this study suggests that even an endoscopist without experience in DLC can effectively use i-scan OE to improve diagnostic performance with only brief training.
Keywords: adenomatous polyps; colonic polyps; colonoscopy; endoscopy.