Impact of capsule endoscopy findings in the management of Crohn's Disease.
BACKGROUND
Capsule endoscopy (CE) has proven efficacy in detecting mucosal lesions of the upper gastrointestinal tract and it has been widely evaluated for assessing small-bowel lesions in patients with suspected or established Crohn's disease (CD).


OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the impact of CE on the management of patients with established CD.


METHODS
All patients with known CD that underwent CE were identified from IBD and endoscopy databases. Baseline characteristics of the study population, CE findings, changes in therapy, and patient outcome were recorded. Patients were followed for 18 months after CE.


RESULTS
CE was performed in 14 CD patients for iron deficiency anemia (n = 5) or abdominal pain of unknown origin (n = 3), or re-evaluation of disease location (n = 6). The overall diagnostic yield was 85.7%. As a result of the CE findings, CD therapy was changed in 64% of cases. Clinical outcome changed in three out of five patients with iron deficiency anemia and in two out of three patients with abdominal pain.


CONCLUSIONS
CE has a high diagnostic yield even in patients with previously known CD, and its findings may influence disease management and clinical outcome.
Lorenzo-Zúñiga
Vicente
V
Department of Gastroenterology, Endoscopy Unit, Hospital Universitari Germans Trias i Pujol, Carretera del Canyet s/n, 08916 Badalona, Spain. vlorenzo.germanstrias@gencat.cat
de Vega
Vicente Moreno
VM
Domènech
Eugeni
E
Cabré
Eduard
E
Mañosa
Míriam
M
Boix
Jaume
J
D000328:Adult; D053704:Capsule Endoscopy / Q000379:methods*; D003424:Crohn Disease / Q000175:diagnosis*; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007422:Intestines / Q000473:pathology*; D008297:Male; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012720:Severity of Illness Index