Diagnosis of Barrett's esophagus using optical coherence tomography.

The presence of Barrett's esophagus (BE) is determined by histopathologic analysis of biopsy specimens obtained during upper endoscopy. The accuracy of endoscopy for the diagnosis of BE is surprisingly poor, however. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is an optical technology that has shown promise as a powerful new tool to study BE. Of all the methods of optical biopsy discussed in this issue,perhaps OCT comes closest to this goal in that it provides a two dimensional image that correlates with traditional histopathologic excisional biopsy.