Diagnostic Value of Small Bowel Capsule Endoscopy in Isolated Ileitis: A CAPENTRY Study

Area of Science:

• Gastroenterology
• Diagnostic Imaging
• Endoscopy

Background:

• Capsule endoscopy (CE) is effective for small bowel lesion detection.
• Limited studies exist on CE's diagnostic impact specifically for ileitis.
• Ileitis evaluation often relies on ileocolonoscopy, which may miss small bowel pathology.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the diagnostic value of small bowel CE for isolated ileitis.
• To determine the yield of CE in patients with ileitis but no colonic abnormalities.
• To identify factors predicting positive CE findings in ileitis.

Main Methods:

• Retrospective analysis of 137 patients with isolated ileitis.
• Patients underwent ileocolonoscopy and subsequently small bowel CE.
• Data collected from eight tertiary referral centers between 2002 and 2015.

Main Results:

• Small bowel CE showed a high diagnostic yield of 85.4% for isolated ileitis.
• Ileal erosion or ulceration (92.9%) and ileal ulcer (90.9%) were common positive CE findings.
• Crohn's disease was the most frequent diagnosis (32%) among positive CE cases.

Conclusions:

• Small bowel CE has a high diagnostic yield in symptomatic patients with isolated ileitis.
• Ileal erosion/ulceration is a significant predictor of positive CE findings.
• CE is recommended for evaluating small bowel lesions in ileitis, especially with elevated ESR or ulcer/erosion findings.