Role of capsule endoscopy in suspected celiac disease: A European multi-centre study

AIM To analyze the diagnostic yield(DY), therapeutic impact(TI) and safety of capsule endoscopy(CE).METHODS This is a multi-centre, observational, analytical, retrospective study. A total of 163 patients with suspicion of celiac disease(CD)(mean age = 46.4 ± 17.3 years, 68.1% women) who underwent CE from 2003 to 2015 were included. Patients were divided into four groups: seronegative CD with atrophy(Group-Ⅰ, n = 19), seropositive CD without atrophy(Group-Ⅱ, n = 39), contraindication to gastroscopy(Group-Ⅲ, n = 6), seronegative CD without atrophy, but with a compatible context(Group-Ⅳ, n = 99). DY, TI and the safety of CE were analysed.RESULTS The overall DY was 54% and the final diagnosis was villous atrophy(n = 65, 39.9%), complicated CD(n = 12, 7.4%) and other enteropathies(n = 11, 6.8%; 8 Crohn’s). DY for groups Ⅰ to Ⅳ was 73.7%, 69.2%, 50% and 44.4%, respectively. Atrophy was located in duodenum in 24 cases(36.9%), diffuse in 19(29.2%), jejunal in 11(16.9%), and patchy in 10 cases(15.4%). Factors associated with a greater DY were positive serology(68.3% vs 49.2%, P = 0.034) and older age(P = 0.008). On the other hand, neither sex nor clinical presentation, family background, positive histology or HLA status were associated with DY. CE resultschanged the therapeutic approach in 71.8% of the cases. Atrophy was associated with a greater TI(92.3% vs 45.3%, P < 0.001) and 81.9% of the patients responded to diet. There was one case of capsule retention(0.6%). Agreement between CE findings and subsequent histology was 100% for diagnosing normal/other conditions, 70% for suspected CD and 50% for complicated CD.CONCLUSION CE has a high DY in cases of suspicion of CD and it leads to changes in the clinical course of the disease. CE is safe procedure with a high degree of concordance with histology and it helps in the differential diagnosis of CD.