title: The clinical outcome of capsule endoscopy in patients with obscure gastrointestinal bleeding.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Capsule endoscopy (CE) represents a significant advance in the investigation of small bowel diseases. Little is known about the clinical outcome of patients with obscure gastrointestinal bleeding (OGIB).
  
  
  METHODS
  Seventy-eight patients underwent CE for OGIB and were followed up for at least 6 months after CE. The diagnostic yield of CE and the rate of re-bleeding during the follow-up period were established.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Out of our 78 OGIB patients, 35 (44.9%) had significant lesions. There was a significant difference in the rate of identification of significant lesions between the on-going overt bleeding cases and previous overt bleeding cases (68.8% vs. 37.8%, respectively, p=0.043). Of the 46 patients with significant or insignificant lesions, 12 (26.1%) had one or more re-bleeding episodes during the follow-up period. On the other hand, only one (4%) of the 26 patients with negative findings had a re-bleeding episode (p=0.025).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In conclusion, our study confirmed the role of CE in the diagnosis of OGIB, especially in the on-going overt bleeding cases. The OGIB patients with negative CE findings showed a low re-bleeding rate in the follow-up period. Further long-term follow-up studies are needed in future to examine the negative CE cases.
authors.affiliation: Department of Gastroenterology, Tokyo Medical University Ibaraki Medical Center, Ibaraki, Japan. junnki@dg.mbn.or.jp
authors.forename: Junichi
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Iwamoto
authors.forename: Yuji
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Mizokami
authors.forename: Koichi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Shimokobe
authors.forename: Shoichiro
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yara
authors.forename: Masashi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Murakami
authors.forename: Kozue
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kido
authors.forename: Masanori
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ito
authors.forename: Takeshi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hirayama
authors.forename: Yoshifumi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Saito
authors.forename: Akira
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Honda
authors.forename: Tadashi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ikegami
authors.forename: Tadashi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ohara
authors.forename: Yasushi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Matsuzaki
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D053704:Capsule Endoscopy / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006471:Gastrointestinal Hemorrhage / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000628:therapy; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged