Retrospective Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2018. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastrointest Endosc. Oct 16, 2018; 10(10): 301-307
Published online Oct 16, 2018. doi: 10.4253/wjge.v10.i10.301
Yield of capsule endoscopy in obscure gastrointestinal bleeding: A comparative study between premenopausal and menopausal women
João Carlos Silva, Rolando Pinho, Adélia Rodrigues, Ana Ponte, Jaime Pereira Rodrigues, Mafalda Sousa, Catarina Gomes, João Carvalho
João Carlos Silva, Rolando Pinho, Adélia Rodrigues, Ana Ponte, Jaime Pereira Rodrigues, Mafalda Sousa, Catarina Gomes, João Carvalho, Department of Gastroenterology, Centro Hospitalar Vila Nova de Gaia/Espinho, Porto 4434-502, Portugal
Author contributions: Silva JC and Pinho R designed the study, performed the research, analyzed the data and wrote the paper; Rodrigues A, Ponte A, Rodrigues JP, Sousa M, Gomes C and Carvalho J performed the research and analyzed the data.
Institutional review board statement: The study was reviewed and approved by the review board of Centro Hospital de Vila Nova de Gaia/Espinho.
Informed consent statement: All study participants, or their legal guardian, provided informed written consent prior to study enrollment.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no conflict of interest for this article.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: João Carlos Silva, MD, Doctor, Department of Gastroenterology, Centro Hospitalar Vila Nova de Gaia/Espinho, Rua Conceição Fernandes, Vila Nova de Gaia, Porto 4434-502, Portugal. joaocarosilva@gmail.com
Telephone: +351-22-7865100 Fax: +351-22-7868369
Received: April 30, 2018
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
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
Research background

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).

Research motivation

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.

Research objectives

To compare the DY of CE for OGIB study and correlated this outcome with menopause presence.

Research methods

The DY, TY, rebleeding rate, hospitalization and mortality were calculated and compared according to menopausal status.

Research results

Postmenopausal age was associated with higher DY, need for endoscopic treatment, rebleeding, and hospitalization.

Research conclusions

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.

Research perspectives

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.