Aiming to reduce biopsies with high-tech photoacoustics and a low-tech sponge

Dr. Katzka reported recruitment of 79 EoE patients in addition to the 20 patients from the pilot study. Thirty-five of these patients had active EoE and 44 were in remission. The accuracy of the Cytosponge in comparison to biopsy remained high, with 81% sensitivity and 79% specificity.

Furthermore, five patients were diagnosed with active disease with the Cytosponge who were not diagnosed by biopsy. The endoscopic abrasion scores were all 0 or 1. The procedure was well tolerated, with near universal preference for undergoing the Cytosponge procedure rather than sedated endoscopy. A trial to use the sponge for monitoring diet therapy is underway, with 35 patients currently being recruited.

The study has also expanded to become multicenter, starting with Dr. Evan Dellon at the University of North Carolina, where 15 patients have undergone the procedure with central processing of pathology at the Mayo Clinic.

Announcement of 2016 AGA-Medtronic Research & Development Pilot Award in Technology
The 2016 AGA-Medtronic award winner is Wa Xian, Ph.D., assistant professor at the University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston. In naming Dr. Xian as the awardee, Dr. Michael L. Kochman said that her work proposes to test the hypothesis that inflammatory bowel disease is caused by genetic defects in the intestines’ epithelial barriers to gut microbes. Dr. Xian will build on her previous work of cloning colonic stem cells to test the genetic defect hypothesis, said Dr. Kochman, professor of medicine at Penn Medicine.

Kari Oakes contributed to this report.