[Does rehydration improve hemoccult screening for intestinal cancer?].
Rehydration, i.e. adding water to the dryed stool specimen before development, is a simple procedure to increase the sensitivity of the Hemoccult test. To counteract an inevitable loss of specificity, a diet omitting red meat and peroxidase-rich vegetables was recommended. During one year the stools of 3430 outpatients of our clinic were tested parallel in the standard manner and after rehydration. Despite of the low-peroxidase diet, rehydration lead to an increase of the positivity rate from 3.5 to 8.4%. Two carcinomas and 12 large adenomas were detected additionally. The predictive value of a positive test for colorectal neoplasia dropped from 20.5 to 13.7%. However, because of the doubling of the positivity rate and consequently the costs of follow-up examinations rehydration cannot be recommended as an improvement in mass-screening for colorectal cancer.
D003110:Colonic Neoplasms / Q000517:prevention & control*; D003113:Colonoscopy; D005260:Female; D006471:Gastrointestinal Hemorrhage / Q000517:prevention & control; D006801:Humans; D007417:Intestinal Polyps / Q000517:prevention & control*; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening; D008875:Middle Aged; D009780:Occult Blood
Verbessert "Rehydrieren" das Haemoccult-Screening nach Darmkrebs?