Diagnosing small bowel Crohn's disease with wireless capsule endoscopy.

We read the article by Fireman et al ( Gut2003;52:390–2 [OpenUrl][1][Abstract/FREE Full Text][2] ) with great interest. We agree that full visualisation and imaging of the entire length of the small bowel is unsatisfactory at present and that capsule endoscopy (CE) is a novel technique and can be considered as a promising new approach for the diagnosis of obscure disease located in the small bowel. The authors diagnosed Crohn's disease (CD) in 12 of 17 patients with clinically suspected CD according to the findings of CE. The authors state that the majority of diagnostic lesions were located in the distal ileum. At least one colonoscopy had been performed prior to CE in 15 of 17 patients. Unfortunately, the investigators do not report whether or not they were able to explore the terminal ileum in all of … [1]: {openurl}?query=rft.jtitle%253DGut%26rft.stitle%253DGut%26rft.issn%253D0017-5749%26rft.aulast%253DFireman%26rft.auinit1%253DZ%26rft.volume%253D52%26rft.issue%253D3%26rft.spage%253D390%26rft.epage%253D392%26rft.atitle%253DDiagnosing%2Bsmall%2Bbowel%2BCrohn%2527s%2Bdisease%2Bwith%2Bwireless%2Bcapsule%2Bendoscopy%26rft_id%253Dinfo%253Adoi%252F10.1136%252Fgut.52.3.390%26rft_id%253Dinfo%253Apmid%252F12584221%26rft.genre%253Darticle%26rft_val_fmt%253Dinfo%253Aofi%252Ffmt%253Akev%253Amtx%253Ajournal%26ctx_ver%253DZ39.88-2004%26url_ver%253DZ39.88-2004%26url_ctx_fmt%253Dinfo%253Aofi%252Ffmt%253Akev%253Amtx%253Actx [2]: /lookup/ijlink?linkType=ABST&journalCode=gutjnl&resid=52/3/390&atom=%2Fgutjnl%2F52%2F10%2F1531.3.atom