Published online Oct 16, 2018. doi: 10.4253/wjge.v10.i10.301
Peer-review started: April 30, 2018
First decision: June 6, 2018
Revised: July 6, 2018
Accepted: August 1, 2018
Article in press: August 1, 2018
Published online: October 16, 2018
Findings of capsule endoscopy (CE) for obscure gastrointestinal bleeding (OGIB) investigation performed in females may vary substantially according to menopause status. In this paper we estimated and compared diagnostic yield (DY) of CE as well as its therapeutic yield (TY) and clinical outcomes in premenopausal women (PMW) and menopausal women (MW).
Negative CE may lead to increased health costs and delayed diagnosis when performed in patients who were not fully investigated, as OGIB is an exclusion diagnosis.
To compare the DY of CE for OGIB study and correlated this outcome with menopause presence.
The DY, TY, rebleeding rate, hospitalization and mortality were calculated and compared according to menopausal status.
Postmenopausal age was associated with higher DY, need for endoscopic treatment, rebleeding, and hospitalization.
PMW with suspected OGIB is less likely to have significant findings in CE. This suggests that fertile age women should be carefully studied, preferably by a multidisciplinary approach, before CE.
Our study has a retrospective design with a small number of patients, so a prospective comparative assessment of CE findings between PMW and MW with a larger population is warranted. In addition routine evaluation by a Gynecologist may reduce the negative CE burden.