NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Capsule endoscopy is more effective than barium contrast studies in identifying small intestinal polyps in patients with hereditary polyposis syndromes, according to a presentation at Digestive Disease Week in Chicago.
Dr. J. Bordas, from the University of Barcelona in Spain, and his associates examined 20 patients with familial adenomatous polyposis and 4 with Peutz-Jeghers syndrome with both procedures.
Capsule endoscopy identified polyps in the small bowel in seven patients, whereas barium contrast detected polyps in only three of these seven patients. Polyps missed by radiography occurred in the ileum, jejunum and duodenum.
“This area of the small bowel is difficult to access by endoscopy,” panel moderator Dr. Richard Rothstein, from Dartmouth Medical School in Lebanon, New Hampshire, commented. “This is now one more role for the capsule to play -- the assessment of patients with polyps that can occur in the small bowel.”
Digestive Disease Week is jointly sponsored by the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases, the American Gastroenterological Association, the American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, the Society for Surgery of the Alimentary Tract, and the Gastroenterology Research Group.
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