Esophageal Capsule Endoscopy for Screening Esophageal Varices among Japanese Patients with Liver Cirrhosis

Abstract

Purpose. Although esophageal capsule endoscopy (ECE) is reportedly useful in the diagnosis of esophageal varices (EV), few reports have described the benefits of this technique in Asian countries. The present paper evaluates the usefulness of ECE for diagnosing EV in Japanese patients with cirrhosis. Methods. We examined 29 patients with cirrhosis (20 males and 9 females; mean age 60 years; Child-Pugh classification A/B/C; 14/14/1) using ECE followed by esophagogastroduodenoscopy (EGD). High-risk EV were defined as F2 and/or RC2 and above. Results. The sensitivity and specificity of ECE for the diagnosis of high-risk EV were 92% and 80%, respectively. Conclusions. The findings showed that ECE is a highly sensitive method of diagnosing high-risk EV that requires endoscopic or pharmacological therapy. Thus, ECE might be a useful method for the screening and followup of EV in patients with cirrhosis.

Use of Wireless Capsule Endoscopy for the Diagnosis and Grading of Esophageal Varices in Patients With Portal Hypertension

“…37 A total of 7 studies evaluated the use of wireless capsule endoscopy for medium or large varices. 22,27,28,32–34,37 A forest plot is shown in Figure 2. The accuracy of each individual study assessing the diagnosis and grading of esophageal varices is illustrated in Figure 3.…”

Posible sangrado del intestino delgado, ¿Es la videocápsula endoscópica la mejor opción?

“…Así mismo, este método permite identificar la causa de la anemia ferropénica hasta en el 66 % de los pacientes que no tienen una causa aparente de la misma (31)(32)(33). En la última década se ha ampliado su uso, sugiriéndola incluso como una estrategia para la tamización de cáncer colorrectal (26,34), esófago de Barrett (35-37) y várices esofágicas (38,39), entre otras (40). Más recientemente se ha estudiado la posibilidad de utilizarla, adicionalmente, como un instrumento terapéutico en la hemorragia de vías digestivas, como una VCE intraoperatoria en tiempo real (41).…”

Screening for esophageal varices

“…The diagnostic performances of these alternative methods for EV screening are summarized in Table , and some illustrations of these methods are shown in Fig. …”

“…(C) Images acquired with esophageal capsule endoscopy and showing EVs: (a) grade I EVs, (b) grade II EVs, (c) grade III EVs. Reprinted with permission from Gastroenterology Research and Practice . Copyright 2012, Hindawi Publishing Corp.…”