: Sessile serrated adenoma / polyps SSA / Ps are thought to be precursors of colorectal cancers. However, current endoscopic techniques for differentiating SSA / Ps from conventional hyperplastic polyps HPs have low diagnostic accuracy. The aim of the present study was to assess the ability of mucosal crypt patterns to distinguish SSA / Ps from HPs. We examined 140 lesions from 93 patients that had been diagnosed histologically as SSA / Ps or HPs at the Showa University Hospital between June 2010 and May 2012. Three experienced colonoscopists reviewed the endoscopic ndings of magnifying colonoscopy. Type II open-shape Type II-O pit patterns and varicose microvascular vessels VMVs were identi ed according to previously proposed de nitions. Although 140 lesions were initially identi ed for the study, 27 lesions were excluded from analysis because of insuf cient endoscopic ndings. Thus, endoscopic ndings from a total of 113 lesions 68 SSA / Ps and 45 HPs were evaluated. Of 113 serrated polyps, 51 lesions 44 SSA / Ps and 7 HPs ; P 0.01 had Type II-O pit patterns. The inter-and intra-observer agreement for these patterns among three colonoscopists was 0.61 range 0.57-0.65 and 0.68 range 0.52-0.94 , respectively. The positive predictive value PPV , negative predictive value NPV , sensitivity, and speci city of Type II-O pit patterns for differentiating between SSA / P and HP were 86 , 61 , 65 , and 84 , respectively. In contrast, the PPV, NPV, sensitivity, and speci city of VMVs were 68 , 43 , 37 , and 73 , respectively. The results indicate that Type II-O mucosal crypt patterns may be useful for the differential diagnosis of SSAPs and HPs.