Application of narrow band imaging for early diagnostics of urinary bladder tumors

Abstract

One of the recent directions in modern urology is an early diagnosis of bladder tumors which allows the disease recognition in its early stages of development. Cystoscopy remains the method of choice for diagnosis of bladder tumors. In the last decade, new methods for the detection and visualization of bladder tumors have been proposed. Purpose of the study: To assess the difference between narrow-band imaging (NBI) cystoscopy for the detection of non-muscular invasive bladder tumors and white light (WL) cystoscopy. Results: From 187 patients with bladder tumors the diagnosis was established by WL cystoscopy in 166 (89%) patients, as whereas in 21 (11%) patients the tumor was detected by NBI cystoscopy performed after WL. Quantitatively, a total of 279 tumor lesions were detected. 212 (76%) were determined through WL and 67 (24%) tumor lesions were identified using the NBI method. Conclusions: Compared to white light cystoscopy, narrow band imaging cystoscopy shows more favorable results regarding the early diagnosis of non-muscular invasive bladder tumors.