Obscure gastrointestinal bleeding: Difficulties in comparing CT enterography and video capsule endoscopy

Abstract

A paper reports the results of a retrospective study that was designed to evaluate the potential role of video capsule endoscopy (VCE) in elucidating the cause of bleeding in patients with obscure gastrointestinal bleeding (OGIB) for whom CT enterography was negative. The authors highlight the limitations of dual-phase CT enterography for the detection of flat lesions of the small bowel such as ulcers, angiodysplasias or arteriovenous malformations, and confirm the superiority of VCE for the detection of this category of lesions. This commentary discusses some of the issues raised. Key Points • Video capsule endoscopy surpasses CT enterography in detecting flat small bowel lesions. • Retrospective VCE and CTenterography findings in obscure bleeding need further evaluation. • A fair and unbiased comparison of the two investigations is still needed. © European Society of Radiology 2012.