Role of wireless capsule endoscopy in inflammatory bowel disease

Video Capsule Endoscopy and Device-Assisted Enteroscopy

Mark Hanscom Courtney Stead Harris Feldman Neil B. Marya David Cave.

Imaging for Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Multiple imaging modalities exist for inflammatory bowel disease. This article explores the use of plain radiographs, contrast radiologic imaging, computed tomography, MRI, ultrasound, and capsule endoscopy. History, technique, indications for use, limitations, and future directions are discussed for each modality.

Small bowel video capsule endoscopy: an overview

Video capsule endoscopy (VCE) is being increasingly used to investigate small bowel pathology. It is the gold standard for obscure gastrointestinal bleeding and iron deficiency anemia. VCE has been in use since 2001 and indications for its use are expanding. VCE is also a useful diagnostic tool in small bowel Crohn's disease, celiac disease, surveillance of polyps, small bowel malignancy and drug-induced small bowel injury. Although VCE is considered a safe and easy procedure, there are a few limitations. These include cost, capsule retention and inability to take a biopsy and perform any therapeutic maneuvers. Contraindications for VCE include pregnancy, patients with a swallowing disorder, history of previous abdominal surgery or concurrent abdomino-pelvic irradiation. This is an overview of VCE, its role and indications in clinical practice, potential complications and contraindications, as well as the ongoing and expected advances in the field.

Small bowel endoscopy in inflammatory bowel disease

The last decade has witnessed a revolution in small bowel (SB) endoscopy technologies. Endoscopists are no longer confined to the use of push enteroscopy or the significantly more invasive intra-operative enteroscopy: SB capsule endoscopy (SBCE) and device assisted enteroscopy (DAE) have rapidly enabled endoscopic visualisation of the entire SB without the need for surgery. DAE goes a step further by allowing tissue sampling and the application of endotherapy. These developments have also been parallelled by rapid advances in dedicated radiological SB imaging technologies. Although it is clear that SBCE and DAE may have a significant role in the diagnosis and management of IBD patients, their respective place in relation to other technologies within the clinical paradigm of IBD is as yet unclear. This review outlines the current evidence base relating to these endoscopic technologies and their impact in the diagnosis and management of IBD and highlights current international recommendations.

Small bowel video capsule endoscopy in Crohn’s disease: What have we learned in the last ten years?

Since its introduction in 2001, capsule endoscopy (CE) has become the most important advance in the study of small bowel disease, including Crohn’s disease (CD). This technique has been demonstrated to be superior to all other current forms of radiological investigation in detecting mucosal abnormalities of small bowel nonstricturing CD. CE has proven to be extremely useful in diagnosing CD in patients with inconclusive findings from ileocolonoscopy and x-ray-based studies. Almost half of all patients with CD involving the ileum also present lesions in proximal intestinal segments, with the small bowel being exclusively involved in up to 30% of all CD cases. Despite the widespread use of CE, several questions concerning the utility of this technique remain unanswered. The lack of commonly agreed diagnostic criteria for defining CD lesions with the aid of CE may have had an influence on the variation in diagnostic results for CE reported in the literature. The utility of CE in monitoring CD and in guiding therapy has also been proposed. Furthermore, CE could be a useful second-line technique for patients with an established diagnosis of CD and unexplained symptoms. Finally, as no threshold for CD diagnosis has been agreed upon, a severity scale of mucosal disease activity has not been universally followed. None of the available activity indexes based on CE findings has been independently validated. This article discusses several cutting-edge aspects of the usefulness of CE in CD 10 years after its introduction as a sensible method to study the small intestine.