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Colon capsule versus CT colonography in patients with incomplete colonoscopy: a prospective, comparative trial
  1. Cristiano Spada1,
  2. Cesare Hassan1,
  3. Brunella Barbaro2,
  4. Franco Iafrate3,
  5. Paola Cesaro1,
  6. Lucio Petruzziello1,
  7. Leonardo Minelli Grazioli1,
  8. Carlo Senore4,
  9. Gabriella Brizi2,
  10. Isabella Costamagna1,
  11. Giuseppe Alvaro2,
  12. Marcella Iannitti3,
  13. Marco Salsano2,
  14. Maria Ciolina3,
  15. Andrea Laghi3,
  16. Lorenzo Bonomo2,
  17. Guido Costamagna1
  1. 1Digestive Endoscopy Unit, Catholic University, Rome, Italy
  2. 2Department of Bioimaging and Radiological Sciences, Catholic University, Rome, Italy
  3. 3Department of Radiological Sciences, Oncology and Pathology, Sapienza University, Rome, Italy
  4. 4Epidemiologia dei Tumori II, AOU S Giovanni Battista—CPO Piemonte Torino, Torino, Italy
  1. Correspondence to Dr Cristiano Spada, Digestive Endoscopy Unit, Catholic University, Largo F. Vito 1, Rome 00168, Italy; cristianospada{at}gmail.com

Abstract

Objective In case of incomplete colonoscopy, several radiologic methods have traditionally been used, but more recently, capsule endoscopy was also shown to be accurate. Aim of this study was to compare colon capsule endoscopy (CCE) and CT colonography (CTC) in a prospective cohort of patients with incomplete colonoscopy.

Design Consecutive patients with a previous incomplete colonoscopy underwent CCE and CTC followed by colonoscopy in case of positive findings on either test (polyps/mass lesions ≥6 mm). Clinical follow-up was performed in the other cases to rule out missed cancer. CTC was performed after colon capsule excretion or 10–12 h postingestion. Since the gold standard colonoscopy was performed only in positive cases, diagnostic yield and positive predictive values of CCE and CTC were used as study end-points.

Results 100 patients were enrolled. CCE and CTC were able to achieve complete colonic evaluation in 98% of cases. In a per-patient analysis for polyps ≥6 mm, CCE detected 24 patients (24.5%) and CTC 12 patients (12.2%). The relative sensitivity of CCE compared to CTC was 2.0 (95% CI 1.34 to 2.98), indicating a significant increase in sensitivity for lesions ≥6 mm. Of larger polyps (≥10 mm), these values were 5.1% for CCE and 3.1% for CTC (relative sensitivity: 1.67 (95% CI 0.69 to 4.00)). Positive predictive values for polyps ≥6 mm and ≥10 mm were 96% and 85.7%, and 83.3% and 100% for CCE and CTC, respectively. No missed cancer occurred at clinical follow-up of a mean of 20 months.

Conclusions CCE and CTC were of comparable efficacy in completing colon evaluation after incomplete colonoscopy; the overall diagnostic yield of colon capsule was superior to CTC.

Trial registration number NCT01525940.

  • Colonoscopy

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