Obtaining biopsies during endoscopic investigation of the gastrointestinal tract for selected inflammatory disorders
Abstract
Obtaining mucosal biopsies has become a standard part of endoscopic investigations of the gastrointestinal tract. Although targeting biopsies of tumoriform (neoplastic) lesions does not usually constitute a difficult task, investigating inflammatory disorders may necessitate more extensive tissue harvesting due to the discontinuous or even patchy distribution of morphological changes, topical differences in the intensity of inflammatory changes and finally, in attempts to detect early phases of inflammation-associated tumour development.
Furthermore, even if clinical guidelines exist (e.g. Barrett''s oesophagus or chronic gastritis), they are usually not followed in practice, especially regarding the amount of retrieved tissue or number of sites investigated by biopsy.
However, an inappropriate number of tissue samples may paradoxically cause harm to the patient due to the necessity of repeating the biopsy.