Colonoscopy in Intestinal Diseases: Comparison
Please note this is a comparison between Version 1 by Dong Hoon Baek and Version 2 by Sirius Huang.

Colonoscopy is an examination of the colorectum and terminal ileum undertaken by inserting a scope with a camera device and flexible light source through the anus. In cases of infectious diseases, colonoscopy is helpful in making the differential diagnosis, revealing endoscopic gross findings, and obtaining the specimens for pathology. Additionally, colonoscopy provides clues for distinguishing between infectious disease and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), and aids in the post-treatment monitoring of IBD.

  • colonoscopy
  • intestinal diseases
  • IBD

1. Introduction

Colonoscopy is an examination of the colorectum and terminal ileum undertaken by inserting a scope with a camera device and flexible light source through the anus. Since colonoscopy was first performed in the 1960s [1], it has been used as a key diagnostic and therapeutic tool for various intestinal diseases. There are many types of intestinal diseases, and they can be classified into infectious disease, inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), neoplasm, functional bowel disorder, bleeding, and others. Colonoscopy can visualize lesions associated with these diseases and find inflammation, ulcers, neoplasms, and hemorrhages. In addition, it provides information on macroscopic findings and enables tissue sampling by inserting instruments through various channels [2]. Moreover, because of the development of endoscopic resection techniques such as endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) and endoscopic mucosal resection (EMR), endoscopic resection is used as the main treatment for early colorectal cancer [3]. Colonoscopy also plays an important role in large bowel obstruction (LBO). Colonoscopy not only enables the diagnosis of various diseases of LBO, but it is also useful as a treatment for balloon dilatation in benign stricture and metal stent insertion in malignant obstruction [4]. Additionally, when gastrointestinal bleeding occurs, endoscopic hemostasis is performed through endoclipping or an electronic surgical unit, and endoscopic perforation treatment can also be used for bowel perforation. However, in functional bowel disorders, colonoscopy is used to exclude other organic causes rather than to diagnose the disease itself [5]. As such, colonoscopy is widely used in various diseases and clinical situations.

2. Colonoscopy in Intestinal Diseases

2.1. Infectious Diseases

An intestinal tract infection can cause abdominal pain, fever, diarrhea, loose stool, and bloody or mucoid stool, and is caused by bacteria, viruses, or parasites. Common causes of infectious enterocolitis include Yersinia enterocolitica, Salmonella, Shigella, Escherichia coli, Campylobacter, Clostridium difficile, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, cytomegalovirus (CMV), and Entamoeba histolytica [6]. In such infectious intestinal diseases, colonoscopy is more useful for diagnostics than therapeutics. In most cases of infectious colitis, endoscopic findings are accompanied by edema, redness, ulceration, exudation, and mucosal friability [7]. Therefore, it is difficult to discriminate between the causative microorganisms that cause infection using only endoscopic findings. Yet, the location of the lesion can be an important clue when making a differential diagnosis. Table 1 summarizes the types of infectious enterocolitis that predominate according to the location of the lesion. Especially in immunocompromised people or men who have sex with men, infectious diseases such as Neisseria gonorrhea, Chlamydia trachomatis, herpes simplex virus, human papilloma virus, syphilis, and Treponema pallidum can occur in the rectum. In these conditions, symptoms such as anorectal pain, tenesmus, and mucopurulent discharge may be present [8].
Table 1.
Prevalent sites of infectious enterocolitis according to the causative microorganism.
Although most cases of infectious enterocolitis yield similar endoscopic macroscopic findings, some cases of infectious enterocolitis have characteristic endoscopic findings. Yersinia enterocolitis is caused by infection with Yersinia enterocolitica, a Gram-negative bacillus distributed worldwide. Yersinia enterocolitis usually affects the terminal ileum or right colon, but occasionally the left colon. Because the right colon and terminal ileum are frequently involved, full colonoscopy should be considered to confirm Yersinia infection [9]. Rutgeerts et al. reported that Yersinia enteritis in the terminal ileum is characterized by large ulcers in the form of granular mucosa [10]. Arai et al. also reported multiple granular elevated lesions in Yersinia ileitis involving the terminal ileum [11]. Yersinia enterocolitis yields inflammatory findings accompanied by granular mucosa of the distal ileum, and is often mistaken for Crohn’s disease (CD) because of its location [12][13][14][15][12,13,14,15]. Therefore, diagnosis of Yersinia enterocolitis should not be made simply by endoscopic findings; other clinical features and clinical findings derived through laboratory tests such as stool tests should be comprehensively considered. Gastrointestinal (GI) salmonellosis is a disease caused by infection of the GI tract with Salmonella species. Salmonella mainly affects the distal ileum and the right colon, but in some cases the entire colon may be involved; thus, full colonoscopy should be considered when Salmonella infection is suspected, such as Yersinia enterocolitis [16]. It is difficult to differentiate Salmonella enterocolitis only by endoscopic findings because it yields non-specific acute inflammatory findings, such as mucosal redness, mucosal friability, ulcers, and erosion [17][18][17,18]. In severe Salmonella enterocolitis involving the whole colon, care must be taken not to confuse it with ulcerative colitis (UC). Moreover, care should be taken not to confuse it with CD when the right colon is severely involved [16]. Shigellosis presents with fever and watery diarrhea, progressing to invasive, hemorrhagic colitis [19]. Upon endoscopy, shigellosis shows mucosal redness, punctate spots, mucosal edema, irregular ulcers, mucosal friability, and exudate [20]. Sometimes in severe shigellosis, the ulcers coalesce and form a circular shape [21]. Although shigellosis mainly affects the left colon, particularly the rectosigmoid colon, it can extend to the proximal part beyond the rectosigmoid colon, and it may present as pancolitis in 15% of cases [20][22][20,22]. Shigella can be confused with UC because it shows ulceration endoscopically with diarrhea and bleeding, and the involved area is similar to that in UC. Enterohemorrhagic E. coli enterocolitis (EHEC) can cause hemorrhagic colitis, diarrhea, and hemolytic uremic syndrome [21]. Several studies have reported that inflammation may appear in the entire colorectum, but is more prevalent in the right colon [23][24][25][26][23,24,25,26]. When severe inflammation occurs, marked swelling, hemorrhage, and dark red erythema may appear in the right colon, which may be similar to the endoscopic findings of ischemic colitis. Moreover, ischemic colitis and EHEC have similar histological findings [27][28][29][27,28,29]. However, they can be differentiated by their common location of involvement. Ischemic colitis usually occurs in the left colon, especially in the watershed area, whereas EHEC enterocolitis occurs more severely in the right colon [21][30][21,30]. Pseudomembranous colitis (PMC) is characterized by the presence of numerous yellowish-white plaques forming a pseudomembrane on the colonic mucosa. Endoscopic findings are characterized by multiple yellowish or creamy mucosal plaques [31]. The most common cause of PMC is Clostridium difficile [32]. However, it can also be rarely caused by Clostridium ramosum, Entamoeba histolytica, E. coli O157:H7, Klebsiella oxytoca, Salmonella species, Shigella species, CMV, chemical agents and medications, IBD, and ischemic colitis [33]. C. difficile-associated PMC is caused by C. difficile toxins, and the use of antibiotics is the greatest risk factor for C. difficile overgrowth. PMC usually involves the left colon, but may involve the entire colon in up to approximately one-third of cases [19][21][34][19,21,34]. However, colonoscopy does not always show typical positive findings in pseudomembranous colitis. Bergstein et al. reported that 16 of 29 (55%) patients with confirmed C. difficile had endoscopic confirmation of pseudomembrane, and non-specific colitis was found in 4 (14%) [35]. Additionally, Gebhard et al. reported that in the early course of C. Difficile-associated PMC, tiny round yellowish spots, different from the usual findings of extensive PMC, could be seen [36]. Colonoscopy can also be used for therapeutic purposes in C. difficile infection. Fecal microbiota transplantation for the treatment of refractory C. difficile infection, or for the prevention of recurrence, can be administered via colonoscopy [37]. To diagnose intestinal tuberculosis, tissue sampling is required, so colonoscopy is essential [38][39][38,39]. Since intestinal tuberculosis often invades the terminal ileum, the terminal ileum should be observed when performing colonoscopy [40]. Endoscopic findings of intestinal tuberculosis include erosions, aphthous ulcers, circumferential ulcers, round- or irregular-shaped ulcers with circumferential arrangements, multiple nodules, ileocecal deformity, and luminal narrowing [39][41][39,41]. Since intestinal tuberculosis tends to involve the ileocecal area and the endoscopic findings are similar to those of CD, care must be taken in making the differential diagnosis. Intestinal tuberculosis more frequently shows a patulous ileocecal valve, scars, and pseudopolyps, and it tends to involve fewer than four segments [42]. Although tissue collection is essential for the diagnosis of intestinal tuberculosis, the probability of confirming intestinal tuberculosis via pathological findings using a biopsy tissue or culture is only 38.7% [43]. Although the confirmation rate via tissue sampling is low, it is also important to confirm the endoscopic findings for the sake of diagnosis. CMV disease is caused by the reactivation of a latent virus, and is mainly seen in immunocompromised individuals, such as organ transplant recipients [21][44][45][21,44,45]. The GI tract is one of the common organs involved in CMV disease [46]. The diagnostic gold standard for GI CMV disease is the presence of CMV in a tissue sample. However, there may be sampling error and the diagnostic yield is low, so it is not always possible to obtain meaningful results for diagnosis [47][48][47,48]. An important endoscopic finding of GI CMV disease is a well-defined ulcer with a punch-out appearance. Occasionally, endoscopic findings may show nonspecific erosions, ulcers, hemorrhagic spots, and granularity and friable mucosa that are difficult to distinguish from UC [49][50][51][49,50,51]. Amoebic colitis is caused by intestinal infection with Entamoeba histolytica. Amoebiasis does not cause symptoms in most cases, but approximately 10% of infected people develop symptoms [52]. Colonoscopy can be a good tool for diagnosing amebic colitis. In particular, the microscopic confirmation of trophozoites that phagocytize red blood cells by performing an endoscopic biopsy sample is the most reliable method for diagnosing amebiasis [53]. Endoscopically, amoebic colitis is frequently identified in the cecum or ascending colonm and appears mainly as an ulcerative lesion. The size of the lesion varies from several millimeters to several centimeters, and it shows a clear border with the surrounding normal mucosa and is covered with exudate. In the early stages of the disease, only inflammatory findings, such as mucosal redness, may be seen [53][54][53,54]. Tissue biopsy is not diagnostic two-thirds of cases [55][56][55,56].

2.2. Inflammatory Bowel Diseases

IBD is classified into CD and UC. Until the 1990s, the treatment goal for IBD was mainly clinical remission. However, as the treatment paradigm has recently changed, the role of endoscopy is becoming more important. An Update on the Selecting Therapeutic Targets in Inflammatory Bowel Disease (STRIDE-II) published in 2021 suggested endoscopic healing as a long-term target along with normalized quality of life [57]. Endoscopy, especially ileocolonoscopy, is an essential tool for diagnosing IBD, confirming disease activity, assessing treatment effects, performing colorectal cancer screening, and providing treatment such as endoscopic dilatation [58][59][60][61][62][63][64][58,59,60,61,62,63,64]. UC and CD show differences in endoscopic findings, and they are very helpful in diagnosis. CD mainly shows segmental involvement, aphthous ulcers, serpentious, longitudinal ulcers, large deep ulcers, rectal sparing, anal or perianal disease, and a cobble stone appearance. Conversely, UC shows a continuous lesion, loss of vascular pattern, granular mucosa, erosion, and rectal involvement [65][66][65,66]. Generally, CD can involve the entire GI tract, and UC affects only the colorectum. However, inflammation of the terminal ileum, i.e., backwash ileitis, is found in 10% of patients with diffuse active UC [67]. Since CD often invades the terminal ileum, it is essential to observe the terminal ileum during colonoscopy [66]. Histopathological evaluation through colonoscopic biopsy, especially the identification of granuloma specific to CD, helps to differentiate IBD [68]. However, not all tissue samples of CD show granuloma on histopathological examination. The rate of confirmation of granuloma through endoscopic biopsy in CD is as low as 15% to 36% [66]. Mucosal healing is a strong predictor of an IBD patient’s long-term outcome [69][70][69,70]. In UC, mucosal healing leads to clinical remission and reduces the risk of colon cancer. In CD, mucosal healing reduces surgery and hospitalization rates [71][72][71,72]. Table 2 summarizes the endoscopic scoring system commonly used in IBD. Endoscopic evaluation is required to evaluate mucosal healing. Since UC occurs only in the colorectum, colonoscopy is essential to evaluate disease activity. Endoscopic severity assessment scoring systems used for UC include the Mayo endoscopic subscore (MES), Ulcerative Colitis Endoscopic Index of Severity (UCEIS), and Ulcerative Colitis Colonoscopic Index of Severity (UCCIS). The MES is a part of the Mayo score and is widely used in clinical practice. The MES classifies UC into normal or inactive disease, mild disease (erythema, decreased vascularity, mild friability), moderated disease (marked erythema, absent vascularity, friability, and erosions), and severe disease (spontaneous bleeding and ulceration) [73]. UCEIS is a scoring system that evaluates each of the nine items of vascular pattern, mucosal erythema, mucosal surface, mucosal edema, mucopus, bleeding, incidental friability, contact friability, erosions and ulcers, and extent of erosions or ulcers [74]. UCCIS uses four parameters: granularity, vascular pattern, ulceration, and bleeding/friability [75]. The first endoscopic scoring system for CD was the Crohn’s Disease Endoscopic Index of Severity (CDEIS), but it is difficult to use in clinical practice because of its complexity. The subsequent Simple Endoscopic Score for Crohn’s Disease assesses the degree of ulceration, ulcerated surface, inflamed surface, and stenosis for five defined bowel segments (the rectum, sigmoid and descending colon, transverse colon, ascending colon, and terminal ileum) to classify the disease activity [76].
Table 2.
Endoscopic scoring systems for IBD.
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