Increased Diagnostic Yield of Capsule Endoscopy in Patients with Chronic Abdominal Pain

BACKGROUND AND STUDY AIMS: Chronic abdominal pain is one of the most common chief complaints, but the underlying pathophysiology often remains unknown after routine clinical evaluation. Capsule endoscopy (CE) is a new technique for the visualization of the entire small bowel. The aim of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic efficacy of CE in patients with chronic abdominal pain of obscure origin. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Two hundred forty three patients with chronic abdominal pain with no significant lesions were enrolled in this study. CE was performed in all patients. RESULTS: A diagnosis was made in 23.0% of patients screened with CE. Of the 243 patients, 19 (7.8%) were diagnosed with Crohn's disease, 15 (6.2%) with enteritis, 11 (4.5%) with idiopathic intestinal lymphangiectasia, 5 (2.1%) with uncinariasis, and a number of other diagnoses including small bowel tumor, ascariasis, and anaphylactoid purpura. Five patients had abnormal transit time, and capsule retention occurred in two patients. CONCLUSIONS: In contrast to other previous studies, we found that CE is an effective diagnostic tool for patients with abdominal pain.