title: Screening colonoscopy in asymptomatic average-risk persons with negative fecal occult blood tests.
abstract: Colonoscopy was performed on 210 asymptomatic average-risk persons, aged 50-75 years, who had negative fecal occult blood test results. Colonoscopy was complete to the cecum in 209 subjects. Fifty-three subjects (25%) had adenomas and two had cancer. All of the adenomas greater than or equal to 1 cm in size and both cancers occurred in subjects aged greater than or equal to 60 years. Fifty-one percent of subjects with adenomas and one with cancer had no neoplasms distal to the sigmoid-descending colon junction. One subject had a major postpolypectomy hemorrhage that stopped spontaneously. Screening colonoscopy, therefore, has a high yield for detection of neoplasms in asymptomatic average-risk persons aged greater than or equal to 60 years with negative fecal occult blood test results. The yield is low in persons aged 50-54 years and intermediate in persons aged 55-59 years.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Indiana University Medical Center, Indianapolis.
authors.forename: D K
authors.initials: DK
authors.lastname: Rex
authors.forename: G A
authors.initials: GA
authors.lastname: Lehman
authors.forename: R H
authors.initials: RH
authors.lastname: Hawes
authors.forename: T M
authors.initials: TM
authors.lastname: Ulbright
authors.forename: J J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Smith
mesh_terms: D000236:Adenoma / Q000517:prevention & control*; D000368:Aged; D003113:Colonoscopy; D015179:Colorectal Neoplasms / Q000517:prevention & control*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007417:Intestinal Polyps / Q000517:prevention & control*; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000379:methods; D008875:Middle Aged; D009780:Occult Blood; D012307:Risk Factors