The Association between Intestinal Transit Time and Uncertain Significance of Diagnostic Yields in Capsule Endoscopy

Abstract

Background: Capsule endoscopy is a highly sensitive examination for the detection of small bowel lesions. However, lesions can be missed due to rapid or delayed small bowel transit. The objective of this study was to determine whether the diagnostic yields vary according to intestinal transit times. Methods: In patients with complete small intestinal mucosa evaluation were assessed after negative upper and lower endoscopy, positive findings could be established in twenty-six of 49 cases (53.1%), which included angiodysplasias, active bleeding, ulcers and tumors. The mean intestinal transit time for all patients was 258.3±67.2 minutes. The patients were divided into two groups: faster than mean intestinal transit time (Group Ⅰ) and slower than mean intestinal transit time (Group Ⅱ). The intestinal transit time was analyzed by computerized software SPSS, comparisons between both groups were carried out using x^2 test. Results: The intestinal transit time were 199.6±37.4 minutes in group I and 310.2±38.2 minutes in group Ⅱ. Diagnostic yields were 47.8% in group Ⅰ and 57.7% in group Ⅱ (p=0.69). Conclusion: The diagnostic yields of capsule endoscopy did not significantly increase for group Ⅱ than group Ⅰ. However, the higher diagnostic yield is obtained in patients with slower intestinal transit time.