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Advancing age does not appear to compromise the completion rate of video-capsule endoscopy or the quality of bowel preparation, clinicians from Greece report.

Advancing age does not appear to compromise the completion rate of video-capsule endoscopy (VCE) or the quality of bowel preparation, clinicians from Greece report in the October issue of the American Journal of Gastroenterology.

However, elderly patients have fewer normal studies and more angiodysplasias and tumors in the small bowel than younger patients, Dr. Angelos A. Papadopoulos from Attikon University General Hospital, Athens, and colleagues have found.

In the study, two independent investigators examined 120 consecutive VCE studies in 32 patients younger than age 40, 36 patients ages 40 to 64 years, and 52 aged 65 or older.

"Our study showed for the first time that there is no excess of incomplete VCE examinations in the elderly," the team reports.

The VCE completion rate (ie, cecum visualized) was similar among the three groups (81.2 per cent for the youngest group, 77.8 per cent for the 40 to 64-year-olds, and 78.8 per cent for the oldest patients) and there was no difference in VCE gastric transit time or in small bowel transit time among the three age groups.

When compared to the younger two groups, the older patient group had significantly more angiodysplasias, but they had fewer ulcers or erosions and fewer findings suggestive of celiac disease.

Overall, four tumors were detected - all in the elderly. This finding, and the fact that the rate of normal studies decreased as age increased, indicates "that this is the group of patients that benefits more from the examination," the investigators point out.

They conclude, based on their study, that older patients can undergo VCE "without concerns over increased complications or suboptimal results due to preparation or motility issues."

Am J Gastroenterol 2008;103:2474-2480