Diagnostic yield of capsule endoscopy in obscure gastrointestinal bleeding

Objectives: Chronic occult blood loss from the gastrointestinal tract is a recognized major cause of iron-deficiency anemia. After conventional investigation of the upper and lower parts of the gastrointestinal tract, the source of bleeding remains unidentified in similar to10% of these patients. We evaluated the diagnostic yield of capsule endoscopy from patients enrolled in clinical studies due to persistent or recurrent iron-deficiency anemia. Methods: In this large cohort study, patients with obscure gastrointestinal bleeding were identified in a company-sponsored clinical study (Given Imaging, Ltd.) database which contains data from >50 clinical studies. Information on suitable patients was derived from 31 of them. Each subject swallowed an M2A(R) Given Capsule containing a miniature video camera, batteries, a transmitter and an antenna. Recording time was similar to8 h. The capsule was excreted naturally in the patient's bowel movement, and the data it transmitted were retrieved and interpreted the next day. Results: 293 patients were studied (135 males, 46.1%, mean age 59.4 +/- 16.8 years) whose mean number of bleeding episodes was 4.3 +/- 5.5 and mean hemoglobin level was 9.8 +/- 2.4 g/dl. The average number of diagnostic procedures per patient prior to the capsule endoscopy study was 5.59. Capsule endoscopy detected definitive findings in 213/293 patients (72%) and findings missed by other diagnostic procedures in 22/293 patients (8%). Neither capsule endoscopy nor the other diagnostic procedures yielded diagnoses in 58/293 patients (20%). Conclusions: Capsule endoscopy has a high diagnostic yield in evaluating patients with obscure gastrointestinal bleeding. Copyright (C) 2004 S. Karger AG, Basel.