We have updated both the American College of Gastroenterology (ACG) and the Canadian Association of Gastroenterology (CAG) guidelines on dyspepsia in a joint ACG/CAG dyspepsia guideline. We suggest ...that patients ≥60 years of age presenting with dyspepsia are investigated with upper gastrointestinal endoscopy to exclude organic pathology. This is a conditional recommendation and patients at higher risk of malignancy (such as spending their childhood in a high risk gastric cancer country or having a positive family history) could be offered an endoscopy at a younger age. Alarm features should not automatically precipitate endoscopy in younger patients but this should be considered on a case-by-case basis. We recommend patients <60 years of age have a non-invasive test Helicobacter pylori and treatment if positive. Those that are negative or do not respond to this approach should be given a trial of proton pump inhibitor (PPI) therapy. If these are ineffective tricyclic antidepressants (TCA) or prokinetic therapies can be tried. Patients that have an endoscopy where no pathology is found are defined as having functional dyspepsia (FD). H. pylori eradication should be offered in these patients if they are infected. We recommend PPI, TCA and prokinetic therapy (in that order) in those that fail therapy or are H. pylori negative. We do not recommend routine upper gastrointestinal (GI) motility testing but it may be useful in selected patients.
Background & Aims Video capsule endoscopy (CE) provides a noninvasive option to assess the small intestine, but its use with respect to endoscopic procedures and cross-sectional imaging varies ...widely. The aim of this consensus was to provide guidance on the appropriate use of CE in clinical practice. Methods A systematic literature search identified studies on the use of CE in patients with Crohn’s disease, celiac disease, gastrointestinal bleeding, and anemia. The quality of evidence and strength of recommendations were rated using the Grading of Recommendation Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE) approach. Results The consensus includes 21 statements focused on the use of small-bowel CE and colon capsule endoscopy. CE was recommended for patients with suspected, known, or relapsed Crohn’s disease when ileocolonoscopy and imaging studies were negative if it was imperative to know whether active Crohn's disease was present in the small bowel. It was not recommended in patients with chronic abdominal pain or diarrhea, in whom there was no evidence of abnormal biomarkers typically associated with Crohn’s disease. CE was recommended to assess patients with celiac disease who have unexplained symptoms despite appropriate treatment, but not to make the diagnosis. In patients with overt gastrointestinal bleeding, and negative findings on esophagogastroduodenoscopy and colonoscopy, CE should be performed as soon as possible. CE was recommended only in selected patients with unexplained, mild, chronic iron-deficiency anemia. CE was suggested for surveillance in patients with polyposis syndromes or other small-bowel cancers, who required small-bowel studies. Colon capsule endoscopy should not be substituted routinely for colonoscopy. Patients should be made aware of the potential risks of CE including a failed procedure, capsule retention, or a missed lesion. Finally, standardized criteria for training and reporting in CE should be defined. Conclusions CE generally should be considered a complementary test in patients with gastrointestinal bleeding, Crohn’s disease, or celiac disease, who have had negative or inconclusive endoscopic or imaging studies.
This update of the 2010 International Consensus Recommendations on the Management of Patients With Nonvariceal Upper Gastrointestinal Bleeding (UGIB) refines previous important statements and ...presents new clinically relevant recommendations.
An international multidisciplinary group of experts developed the recommendations. Data sources included evidence summarized in previous recommendations, as well as systematic reviews and trials identified from a series of literature searches of several electronic bibliographic databases from inception to April 2018. Using an iterative process, group members formulated key questions. Two methodologists prepared evidence profiles and assessed quality (certainty) of evidence relevant to the key questions according to the GRADE (Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation) approach. Group members reviewed the evidence profiles and, using a consensus process, voted on recommendations and determined the strength of recommendations as strong or conditional.
Preendoscopic management: The group suggests using a Glasgow Blatchford score of 1 or less to identify patients at very low risk for rebleeding, who may not require hospitalization. In patients without cardiovascular disease, the suggested hemoglobin threshold for blood transfusion is less than 80 g/L, with a higher threshold for those with cardiovascular disease. Endoscopic management: The group suggests that patients with acute UGIB undergo endoscopy within 24 hours of presentation. Thermocoagulation and sclerosant injection are recommended, and clips are suggested, for endoscopic therapy in patients with high-risk stigmata. Use of TC-325 (hemostatic powder) was suggested as temporizing therapy, but not as sole treatment, in patients with actively bleeding ulcers. Pharmacologic management: The group recommends that patients with bleeding ulcers with high-risk stigmata who have had successful endoscopic therapy receive high-dose proton-pump inhibitor (PPI) therapy (intravenous loading dose followed by continuous infusion) for 3 days. For these high-risk patients, continued oral PPI therapy is suggested twice daily through 14 days, then once daily for a total duration that depends on the nature of the bleeding lesion. Secondary prophylaxis: The group suggests PPI therapy for patients with previous ulcer bleeding who require antiplatelet or anticoagulant therapy for cardiovascular prophylaxis.
Background & Aims Methotrexate and infliximab are effective therapies for Crohn's disease (CD). In the combination of maintenance methotrexate-infliximab trial, we evaluated the potential superiority ...of combination therapy over infliximab alone. Methods In a 50-week, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, we compared methotrexate and infliximab with infliximab alone in 126 patients with CD who had initiated prednisone induction therapy (15–40 mg/day) within the preceding 6 weeks. Patients were assigned randomly to groups given methotrexate at an initial weekly dose of 10 mg, escalating to 25 mg/week (n = 63), or placebo (n = 63). Both groups received infliximab (5 mg/kg of body weight) at weeks 1, 3, 7, and 14, and every 8 weeks thereafter. Prednisone was tapered, beginning at week 1, and discontinued no later than week 14. The primary outcome was time to treatment failure, defined as a lack of prednisone-free remission (CD Activity Index, <150) at week 14 or failure to maintain remission through week 50. Results Patients' baseline characteristics were similar between groups. By week 50, the actuarial rate of treatment failure was 30.6% in the combination therapy group compared with 29.8% in the infliximab monotherapy group ( P = .63; hazard ratio, 1.16; 95% confidence interval, 0.62–2.17). Prespecified subgroup analyses failed to show a benefit in patients with short disease duration or an increased level of C-reactive protein. No clinically meaningful differences were observed in secondary outcomes. Combination therapy was well tolerated. Conclusions The combination of infliximab and methotrexate, although safe, was no more effective than infliximab alone in patients with CD receiving treatment with prednisone. ClincialTrials.gov number, NCT00132899.
Background and Aims ERCP is an advanced endoscopic procedure that is technically more challenging and carries a higher risk of adverse events compared with standard endoscopy. A discrepancy currently ...exists among guidelines regarding the number of ERCPs that a trainee needs to complete before procedural competency should be assessed. Our aim was to assess the learning curve for performing ERCP. Methods Two authors independently searched MEDLINE (1946 to November 25, 2014) along with the gray literature to identify relevant citations. To warrant inclusion, citations were required to report successful trainee cannulation rate. Successful cannulation rate, set at a value of 80% or higher, was used as our baseline reference for competency. Results Nine studies, assessing 137 trainees and 17,100 ERCPs, were included in our analysis. Overall, competency was achieved among the included studies between 70 to 400 ERCPs. In the 2 studies that used pancreatic duct cannulation rate, competency was achieved by 70 to 160 ERCPs. Of the 5 studies that used selective duct cannulation rate, competency was achieved by 79 to 300 ERCPs. Finally, in the 4 studies that used common bile duct cannulation rate, 2 studies reached the reference competency threshold by 160 to 400 ERCPs. On further stratification, when assessing native papilla deep common bile duct cannulation, only 1 study reached the reference competency threshold by 350 to 400 ERCPs. Conclusions Our findings suggest that as ERCP has evolved from a predominantly diagnostic to therapeutic procedure, procedural thresholds have risen well above North American training guidelines. Therefore, advanced endoscopy training programs need to reassess their current structure to ensure that procedural competency is being reached.
Probiotic formulations of single species of bacteria have not been effective in preventing the recurrence of Crohn's disease after surgery. We investigated the ability of VSL#3, a mixture of 8 ...different bacterial probiotic species, to prevent Crohn's disease recurrence after surgery in a multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial.
Within 30 days of ileocolonic resection and re-anastomosis, patients with Crohn's disease were randomly assigned to groups given 1 sachet of VSL#3 (900 billion viable bacteria, comprising 4 strains of Lactobacillus, 3 strains of Bifidobacterium, and 1 strain of Streptococcus salivarius subspecies thermophilus) (n = 59) or matching placebo (n = 60). Colonoscopy was performed at days 90 and 365 to evaluate the neoterminal ileum for disease recurrence and obtain mucosal biopsies for cytokine analysis. Patients from both groups with either no or mild endoscopic recurrence at day 90 received VSL#3 until day 365. The primary outcome was the proportion of patients with severe endoscopic recurrence at day 90.
At day 90, the proportion of patients with severe endoscopic lesions did not differ significantly between VSL#3 (9.3%) and placebo (15.7%, P = .19). The proportions of patients with non-severe lesions at day 90 who had severe endoscopic recurrence at day 365 were 10.0% in the early VSL#3 group (given VSL#3 for the entire 365 days) and 26.7% in the late VSL#3 group (given VSL#3 from days 90 through 365) (P = .09). Aggregate rates of severe recurrence (on days 90 and 365) were not statistically different, 20.5% of subjects in the early VSL#3 group and 42.1% in the late VSL#3 group. Patients receiving VSL#3 had reduced mucosal inflammatory cytokine levels compared with placebo at day 90 (P < .05). Crohn's disease activity index and inflammatory bowel disease quality of life scores were similar in the 2 groups.
There were no statistical differences in endoscopic recurrence rates at day 90 between patients who received VSL#3 and patients who received placebo. Lower mucosal levels of inflammatory cytokines and a lower rate of recurrence among patients who received early VSL#3 (for the entire 365 days) indicate that this probiotic should be further investigated for prevention of Crohn's disease recurrence. Clinical trials.gov number: NCT00175292.
The cost-effectiveness of screening for colorectal cancer Telford, Jennifer J; Levy, Adrian R; Sambrook, Jennifer C ...
Canadian Medical Association journal (CMAJ),
2010-Sep-07, 2010-09-07, 20100907, Letnik:
182, Številka:
12
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Published decision analyses show that screening for colorectal cancer is cost-effective. However, because of the number of tests available, the optimal screening strategy in Canada is unknown. We ...estimated the incremental cost-effectiveness of 10 strategies for colorectal cancer screening, as well as no screening, incorporating quality of life, noncompliance and data on the costs and benefits of chemotherapy.
We used a probabilistic Markov model to estimate the costs and quality-adjusted life expectancy of 50-year-old average-risk Canadians without screening and with screening by each test. We populated the model with data from the published literature. We calculated costs from the perspective of a third-party payer, with inflation to 2007 Canadian dollars.
Of the 10 strategies considered, we focused on three tests currently being used for population screening in some Canadian provinces: low-sensitivity guaiac fecal occult blood test, performed annually; fecal immunochemical test, performed annually; and colonoscopy, performed every 10 years. These strategies reduced the incidence of colorectal cancer by 44%, 65% and 81%, and mortality by 55%, 74% and 83%, respectively, compared with no screening. These strategies generated incremental cost-effectiveness ratios of $9159, $611 and $6133 per quality-adjusted life year, respectively. The findings were robust to probabilistic sensitivity analysis. Colonoscopy every 10 years yielded the greatest net health benefit.
Screening for colorectal cancer is cost-effective over conventional levels of willingness to pay. Annual high-sensitivity fecal occult blood testing, such as a fecal immunochemical test, or colonoscopy every 10 years offer the best value for the money in Canada.
AIM:To determine if longer battery life improves capsule endoscopy(CE) completion rates.METHODS:A retrospective study was performed at a tertiary,university-affiliated hospital in ...Vancouver,Canada.Patients who underwent CE with either PillCamTM SB2 or SB2 U between 01/2010 and 12/2013 were considered for inclusion.SB2 and SB2 U share identical physical dimensions but differ in their battery lives(8 h vs 12 h).Exclusion criteria included history of gastric or small bowel surgery,endoscopic placement of CE,interrupted view of major landmarks due to technical difficulty or significant amount of debris,and repeat CE using same system.Basic demographics,comorbidities,medications,baseline bowel habits,and previous surgeries were reviewed.Timing of major landmarks in CE were recorded,and used to calculate gastric transit time,small bowel transit time,and total recording time.A complete CE study was defined as visualization of cecum.Transit times and completion rates were compared.RESULTS:Four hundred and eight patients,including 208(51.0%) males,were included for analysis.The mean age was 55.5 ± 19.3 years.The most common indication for CE was gastrointestinal bleeding(n =254,62.3%),followed by inflammatory bowel disease(n =86,21.1%).There was no difference in gastric transit times(group difference 0.90,95%CI:0.72-1.13,P =0.352) and small bowel transit times(group difference 1.07,95%CI:0.95-1.19,P =0.261) between SB2 U and SB2,but total recording time was about 14% longer in the SB2 U group(95%CI:10%-18%,P < 0.001) and there was a corresponding trend toward higher completion rate(88.2% vs 93.2%,OR =1.78,95%CI 0.88-3.63,P =0.111).There was no statistically significant difference in the rates of positive findings(OR =0.98,95%CI:0.64-1.51,P =0.918).CONCLUSION:Extending the operating time of CE may be a simple method to improve completion rate although it does not affect the rate of positive findings.
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