Can a Video Capsule Differentiate Ulcerative Colitis from Crohns Disease?

Foundation for Clinical Research in IBD awards a grant to the University of Chicago to determine if Wireless Capsule Endoscopy -- the "camera in a pill -- can more effectively distinguish between ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease.

(PRWEB) June 17, 2004 -- The Foundation for Clinical Research in IBD recently awarded a grant to Andrew S. Ross, MD, and David T. Rubin, MD, at The University of Chicago. Drs. Ross and Rubin will conduct a pilot study to determine if Wireless Capsule Endoscopy can more effectively distinguish ulcerative colitis from Crohns disease.

Ulcerative colitis and Crohns disease are two types of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Ulcerative colitis affects only the colon (the large intestines). Crohns disease can be found in any part of the gastrointestinal tract.

Up until now, physicians have used standard endoscopy, a patients history, and radiological studies to determine if a patient has ulcerative colitis or Crohns disease. Any evidence of disease in the small intestine indicates Crohns disease. Yet, standard endoscopies are unable to visualize the entire small intestine, and a proportion of patients initially diagnosed with ulcerative colitis have later learned that they have Crohns disease.

Wireless Capsule Endoscopy -- the camera in a pill" -- may allow physicians to make a more definitive diagnosis. The color video camera can record as many as 50,000 images of the digestive tract during an eight-hour period. In theory, it would allow physicians to see substantially more of the small intestine and to detect any signs of Crohns disease.

Drs. Ross and Rubin will enroll 116 patients in their study. Half will have active ulcerative colitis. The other 58 individuals will have no indication of either ulcerative colitis or Crohns disease. Both groups will undergo Wireless Capsule Endoscopy. Two independent examiners, who will not know which study participants have ulcerative colitis, will review the results of the endoscopies.

We expect that a significant proportion of patients with ulcerative colitis will have small bowel involvement," says Dr. Ross. If our hypothesis is correct, it will tell us one of two things: those patients actually have Crohns disease or their disease pathology indicates that another type of IBD has yet to be identified. In either case, gastroenterologists will be better able to treat these patients disease."

For more information about this groundbreaking study, visit the Foundations Web site at http://www.clinicalresearchinibd.org.