[Virtual colonoscopy in real life--is it that good?].
BACKGROUND
Colon cancer is the main cause of mortality among the gastrointestinal cancers in Israel. Early detection of the average risk population is recommended from the age of 50 to 75 years. Private departments of radiology aggressively advertise virtual colonoscopy for the early detection of colon cancer, although it is not recognised as such in any country.


METHODS
We collected all cases in which virtual colonoscopy was followed by endoscopic colonoscopy in the same patient from four medical centers in Israel.


RESULTS
Total discrepancy between the results of the two examinations was found in 2/3 of the patients. In some cases colon cancer was missed.


CONCLUSIONS
The results presented herein, raise many questions and "red lights" as to the use of virtual colonoscopy in its present form for screening purposes in Israel unless it is in the setting of clinical research.
Eliakim
Rami
R
Gastroenterology Departments Rambam Hospital Haifa, Israel.
Arber
Nadir
N
Halak
Aaron
A
Scapa
Eitan
E
Niv
Yaron
Y
D000329:Advertising; D003110:Colonic Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis; D003113:Colonoscopy / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D007557:Israel; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D014584:User-Computer Interface