Table 1.

Endomicroscopic grade (Watson grade) for in vivo identification of local barrier dysfunction

	Cell shedding	Local barrier dysfunction
I. Normal	Cell shedding confined to single cells per shedding site (eg, figure 1C or D)	None
II. Functional defect	Cell shedding confined to single cells per shedding site	Fluorescein signal visible in the intestinal lumen with an intensity the same or brighter than the epithelium or fluorescein plumes out of the epithelium into the lumen (eg, figure 2D)
III. Structural defect	Microerosions in any field. Microerosion is defined when the lamina propria is exposed to the lumen with multiple cells being shed per site (eg, figure 2E)	Fluorescein signal visible in the intestinal lumen with an intensity the same or brighter than the epithelium or fluorescein plumes out of the epithelium into the lumen (eg, figure 2E)

See Material and methods.