title: Screening for occult gastrointestinal bleeding in hospital patients.
abstract: Stools have been tested for occult gastrointestinal bleeding in 278 outpatients and 170 hospital inpatients using the Haemoccult and Haemastix methods. Seventeen outpatients (6.1%) and 42 inpatients (24%) were positive with the Haemoccult technique. Thirty-three outpatients (11.9%) and 93 inpatients (54.7%) were positive with the Haemastix test. Following investigation of the Haemoccult-positive patients, only 2 cases (3.4%) were considered false positive. However, the false positive rate with Haemastix was 22.9% which is unacceptable in a screening test. Haemoccult may be useful as a screening test for asymptomatic general practice patients, but a test of greater sensitivity is needed for hospital patients.
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005189:False Positive Reactions; D005243:Feces; D005260:Female; D006471:Gastrointestinal Hemorrhage / Q000175:diagnosis*; D006760:Hospitalization; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011933:Reagent Kits, Diagnostic
chemical_list: D011933:Reagent Kits, Diagnostic