Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Multicenter Study
. 2025 Jul 1;59(6):562-568.
doi: 10.1097/MCG.0000000000002048.

The Utility of Patency Capsule in Patients With Crohn's Disease

Tarek Odah  1 , Christian Karime  2 , Jana G Hashash  1 , Jami A Kinnucan  1 , Michael F Picco  1 , Francis A Farraye  1
Affiliations
Multicenter Study

The Utility of Patency Capsule in Patients With Crohn's Disease

Tarek Odah et al. J Clin Gastroenterol. .

Abstract

Background: Video capsule retention is a complication that can have serious consequences in patients with Crohn's disease (CD). The patency capsule was developed to detect small bowel strictures. The usefulness of patency capsules in patients who do not have evidence of small bowel disease on imaging is uncertain.

Study: This is a multicenter retrospective study of patients with suspected or confirmed CD who underwent a patency capsule study between January 2017 and February 2023. We excluded patients who were lost to follow-up or did not have computerized tomography or magnetic resonance imaging of the abdomen within 180 days before or after the patency capsule study.

Results: A total of 105 patients met the inclusion criteria with 69% having a confirmed CD diagnosis. The majority of patients (95/105; 90.5%) passed their patency capsule. A total of 91 patients had their subsequent video capsule endoscopy (VCE), with 96.7% (88/91) successfully passing the capsule. Out of those who passed the VCE, 2 patients had patency capsule retention. Both had normal small bowel imaging. Meanwhile, the 3 patients who had VCE retention had evidence of small bowel disease in their imaging scans. The presence of abnormal small bowel wall thickening or stricture on imaging had a statistically significant association with VCE retention ( P =0.02).

Conclusion: Our study demonstrated a statistically significant association between small bowel disease on imaging and retention of both patency capsules and VCE. Small bowel imaging in patients with suspected or documented CD had a negative predictive value of 100% for VCE retention.

Keywords: Crohn’s disease; bowel stricture; patency capsule; retention small; video capsule.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Torres J, Mehandru S, Colombel JF, et al. Crohn’s disease. Lancet. 2017;389:1741–1755.
    1. Lin XX, Qiu Y, Zhuang XJ, et al. Intestinal stricture in Crohn’s disease: A 2020 update. J Dig Dis. 2021;22:390–398.
    1. Iddan G, Meron G, Glukhovsky A, et al. Wireless capsule endoscopy. Nature. 2000;405:417.
    1. Eliakim R, Suissa A, Yassin K, et al. Wireless capsule video endoscopy compared to barium follow-through and computerized tomography in patients with suspected Crohn’s disease—final report. Dig Liver Dis. 2004;36:519–522.
    1. Hara AK, Leighton JA, Heigh RI, et al. Crohn's disease of the small bowel: preliminary comparison among CT enterography, capsule endoscopy, small-bowel follow-through, and ileoscopy. Radiology. 2006;238:128–134.

Publication types

MeSH terms