Premium
The Colon Mucus Test in Comparison with the Fecal Occult Blood Test in the Detection of Gastrointestinal Disease
Author(s) -
WATANABE Hiroyuki,
MOURI Ikurou,
YAMAGUCHI Yasushi,
YAMAKAWA Osamu,
KAWAKAMI Hiroyasu,
SATOMURA Yoshitake,
Ohta Hideki,
MOTOO Yoshiharu,
OKAI Takashi,
FUKUI Masanori,
SAWABU Norio
Publication year - 1992
Publication title -
digestive endoscopy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.5
H-Index - 56
eISSN - 1443-1661
pISSN - 0915-5635
DOI - 10.1111/j.1443-1661.1992.tb00240.x
Subject(s) - medicine , gastroenterology , fecal occult blood , colorectal cancer , incidence (geometry) , cancer , mucus , gastrointestinal tract , disease , occult , colonoscopy , pathology , ecology , physics , alternative medicine , optics , biology
This study was undertaken to assess the diagnostic significance of the colon mucus test (CMT) by which the cancer‐associated carbohydrate antigen, β‐D‐Gal (1 ‐ 3)‐D‐GalNAc (T antigen) is measured in rectal mucus, chiefly in patients with various alimentary tract diseases. The incidence of a positive CMT was relatively high in colorectal cancer (69%) and gastric cancer (40%), and was similarly high in some benign colorectal diseases such as colonic diverticulum (42%) and colonic polyps (39%), and in gastric polyps (75%). On the other hand, the incidence of a positive CMT in other benign diseases or in healthy controls was less than 10%. A positive CMT was significantly more common in colorectal disease and in gastric tumors (cancer and polyps) than in the other diseases (p < 0.001). Of 28 colonic polyp patients, 20 (71%) had negative fecal occult blood test results (FOBT), and nine of them (45%) had positive CMT results . These results suggest that the CMT may be a useful screening test for alimentary tract disease, particularly colorectal disease and gastric tumors, although its specificity for colorectal cancer is only moderate. Furthermore, a combination assay using FOBT plus CMT may help to improve the diagnostic rate .