Pancolonic indigo carmine dye spraying for the detection of dysplasia in ulcerative colitis. Rutter MD, Saunders BP, Schofield G, Forbers A, Price AB, Talbot IC. Gut 2004; 53:256–260. Patients with long-standing ulcerative colitis have an increased risk of colitis-associated colorectal cancer, depending on the duration, extent, and activity of the disease, and the presence of sclerosing cholangitis. Thus, surveillance colonoscopy with targeted and untargeted biopsies is recommended. In a recent issue of Gut, Rutter and colleagues reported about chromoendoscopy to unmask flat neoplastic lesions and to aid biopsies toward premalignant and malignant lesions. Chromoendoscopy is a simple technique. With the help of a spraying catheter, different dyes can be applied onto the mucosa. Indigo carmine is a contrast stain and highlights the surface mucosa, whereas methylene blue is an absorptive stain leading to a longer and stable staining pattern. In combination with magnifying endoscopes, the surface of stained circumscript lesions can be analyzed to predict histology.
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Kießlich et al. (2004) studied this question.