Adherence to the Porto Criteria Based on the Hungarian Nationwide Pediatric Inflammatory Bowel Registry (HUPIR)

Objectives: According to the Porto criteria, upper endoscopy and ileocolonoscopy with histology for patients with pediatric inflammatory bowel disease (pIBD) are recommended with small bowel imaging (SBI). We aimed to evaluate the adherence to the Porto criteria and biopsy sampling practice and to evaluate the diagnostic yield of magnetic resonance enterography (MRE) first time in a nationwide pIBD inception cohort.Methods: Newly diagnosed pIBD cases (ages 0–18 years) are registered in the prospective, nationwide Hungarian Paediatric IBD Registry (HUPIR). We analyzed the diagnostic workup of patients recorded between the 1st of January 2007 and the 31st of December 2016.Results: Data for diagnostic workup was available in 1,523 cases. Forty percent of the cases had complied with the Porto criteria. Adherence to the Porto criteria increased significantly from 20 to 57% (p < 0.0001) between 2007 and 2016. The most frequent reason for the incomplete diagnostic work-up was the lack of small bowel imaging (59%). In 2007, 8% of cases had a biopsy from all segments, and this rate reached 51% by 2016 (p < 0.0001). We analyzed the diagnostic yield of MRE in 113 patients (10.1%), who did not have any characteristic lesion for Crohn's disease. The MRE was positive for the small bowel in 44 cases (39%).Conclusions: Adherence to the Porto criteria increased significantly during the 10-year period. This is the first study that reports multiple biopsy sampling as the less accepted recommendation. The diagnostic yield of MRE in patients without characteristic lesion for Crohn's disease is 39%.

Small Bowel Radiographic Imaging is Not Useful for Isolated Iron-Deficiency Anemia

Background Iron deficiency anemia in the absence of overt bleeding can result from chronic occult blood loss from the gastrointestinal tract. When esophagogastroduodenoscopy (EGD) and colonoscopy fail to demonstrate clinically significant lesions (CSLs), practitioners often consider small bowel investigations, such as CT enterography and video capsule endoscopy. Although most society guidelines recommend further investigations to evaluate the small bowel, few studies have evaluated the utility of small bowel radiographic imaging in this setting.Methods This is a retrospective cross-sectional study investigating the rates and types of CSLs identified during EGD, colonoscopy and small bowel imaging among individuals over age 50 who were referred for new-onset iron deficiency anemia without overt bleeding. Data was collected on 334 consecutive patients who underwent colonoscopy with or without EGD to evaluate new-onset iron deficiency anemia at The Ottawa Hospital from January 1, 2010 to March 30, 2012. We evaluated the frequency of CSLs among all patients and those who further underwent small bowel radiographic imaging.Results Of the 332 individuals who underwent colonoscopy, 42 (12.7%) were found to have a CSL, with 37 of these being malignancy or high-grade adenomas. Of the 258 individuals who also underwent EGD, 49 (19.0%) had CSLs, including 11 vascular ectasias, 15 peptic ulcer disease, 8 celiac disease, 8 severe erosive esophagitis, and 9 esophageal varices. Of 243 patients who did not have any CSLs identified on colonoscopy +/- EGD, 75 underwent subsequent small bowel imaging, and 9 patients underwent small bowel imaging despite having a CSL found on endoscopy. A total of 84 patients underwent subsequent small bowel imaging (68 CT enterography, 13 small bowel follow-through, one MR enterography, one CT enteroclysis, and one push enteroscopy). In these 84 patients, only one relevant CSL was found (inflammatory bowel disease).Conclusions Upper and lower endoscopy are valuable tools for diagnosing gastrointestinal tract lesions in individuals over the age of 50 with newly diagnosed iron deficiency anemia in the absence of overt bleeding. CT enterography and small bowel follow-through have limited utility in this setting.

Optimising the use of small bowel endoscopy: a practical guide

The wireless nature of capsule endoscopy offers patients the least invasive option for small bowel investigation. It is now the first-line test for suspected small bowel bleeding. Furthermore meta-analyses suggest that capsule endoscopy outperforms small bowel imaging for small bowel tumours and is equivalent to CT enterography and magnetic resonance enterography for small bowel Crohn’s disease. A positive capsule endoscopy lends a higher diagnostic yield with device-assisted enteroscopy. Device-assisted enteroscopy allows for the application of therapeutics to bleeding points, obtain histology of lesions seen, tattoo lesions for surgical resection or undertake polypectomy. It is however mainly reserved for therapeutics due to its invasive nature. Device-assisted enteroscopy has largely replaced intraoperative enteroscopy. The use of both modalities is discussed in detail for each indication. Current available guidelines are compared to provide a concise review.