Clinical Trials Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Feb 21, 2015; 21(7): 2140-2146
Published online Feb 21, 2015. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v21.i7.2140
Endoscopic measurement of variceal diameter
Zhi-Qun Li, En-Qiang Linghu, Min Hu, Xiang-Dong Wang, Hong-Bin Wang, Jing-Yun Meng, Hong Du
Zhi-Qun Li, Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Chinese PLA 261 Hospital, Beijing 100094, China
En-Qiang Linghu, Min Hu, Xiang-Dong Wang, Hong-Bin Wang, Jing-Yun Meng, Hong Du, Department of Hepatology and Gastroenterology, Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing 100853, China
Author contributions: Linghu EQ conceived the study; Li ZQ carried out the research, participated in the study design, and drafted the manuscript; Meng JY carried out the research; Wang HB participated in the design of the study and performed the statistical analysis; Wang XD participated in the study design and coordination; all authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Supported by Chinese Postdoctoral Science Foundation, Grant 2012T50868.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: En-Qiang Linghu, MD, Professor, Chief Physician, Department of Hepatology and Gastroenterology, Chinese PLA General Hospital, 28 Fuxing Road, Haidian District, Beijing 100853, China. linghuenqiang@vip.sina.com
Telephone: +86-10-68182255 Fax: 86-10-68154653
Received: June 29, 2014
Peer-review started: June 29, 2014
First decision: July 16, 2014
Revised: July 24, 2014
Accepted: September 18, 2014
Article in press: September 19, 2014
Published online: February 21, 2015
Abstract

AIM: To measure in vitro diameter of imitational varices using a self-made endoscopic scale and confirm its accuracy and clinical feasibility.

METHODS: A catheter was introduced into the endoscope accessory channel and attached to a zebra wire guide that was used as a stylet. The wire guide was fixed onto the tip of the catheter by a soft and thin string. By gently advancing the stylet into the catheter, the width of the opening loop at the tip of the endoscope approximated the diameter of the imitational varices. Measurements performed in vitro using this self-made endoscopic ruler were compared to measurements of simulative varices.

RESULTS: At the handle, the sleeve moving distance ranged from 5 to 14 mm. There was no obvious proportional relationship between the sleeve movement distance and endoscopic measurement ruler. The results indicated that the gap between the endoscopic measurement and actual measurement of the object size tended to close. The in vitro measurement of the diameter of the simulative varices showed that the two kinds of measuring methods were not significantly different with respect to their accuracy (P = 0.8499).

CONCLUSION: In vitro experiments confirmed that using a self-designed endoscopic ruler to measure the diameter of simulative varices was objective, accurate and feasible.

Keywords: Endoscopic measuring ruler, Variceal diameter, Visual method

Core tip: There are no specific criteria for variceal size assessment. There are different conventions for grading variceal size but little is known about their relative value. Subjective bias and inter-observer variation in the endoscopic evaluation of these predictors cannot be excluded. In this study, we compared the accuracy of in vitro measurement of the diameter of simulative varices by ruler with a self-made endoscopic scale. The results showed that the difference between the two methods was not statistically significant.