The studies concluded that PillCam SB is able to accelerate the time to diagnosing these conditions and often can obviate the need for additional diagnostic tests as well as the value of PillCam ESO as an emergency room tool to expedite triaging of patients presenting with upper gastrointestinal bleeding or non-cardiac chest pain, according to the release.
Key findings highlighted in the release include the following:
- Investigators in one study concluded that PillCam SB could be used aggressively to evaluate patients with moderate to severe anemia, with a 72.7 percent diagnostic yield among severely anemic patients and a 69.7 percent ability to guide further intervention.
- Researchers in another study observed lesions compatible with small bowel Crohn’s disease in nearly 35 percent of patients who were clinically suspected of Crohn’s disease but had undefined diagnoses after inconclusive ileocolonoscopy, small bowel follow through or small bowel contrast ultrasonography and found substantial inter-observer agreement on PillCam endoscopy results for patients with confirmed or suspected Crohn’s disease.
- Several studies showed that PillCam endoscopy (PillCam SB and PillCam ESO) administered in an urgent or emergency room setting could increase diagnostic yield, stratify high-risk patients and lead to better patient management, reducing the need for further tests. Two additional studies showed higher diagnostic yield in OGIB patients undergoing PillCam endoscopy in an in-patient setting.
- Two studies concluded that PillCam SB has clinical value even when yielding negative findings, with 24 percent of referring physicians responding that PillCam endoscopy was “indispensable” to the patient’s diagnosis, and concluding that capsule endoscopy impacts diagnosis and affects clinical outcomes and that a negative capsule study for OGIB was shown to be predictive of low re-bleeding rates, obviating the need for further investigation.
Details regarding the studies and their researchers are available in the release.
Read the Given Imaging release on the efficacy of PillCam technology.
