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A prospective study of screening upper gastrointestinal (GI) endoscopy prior to and after bone marrow transplantation (BMT)
Author(s) -
Forbes G. M.,
Rule S. A. J.,
Herrmann R. P.,
Davies J. M.,
Collins B. J.
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
australian and new zealand journal of medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.596
H-Index - 70
eISSN - 1445-5994
pISSN - 0004-8291
DOI - 10.1111/j.1445-5994.1995.tb00575.x
Subject(s) - medicine , endoscopy , occult , gastroenterology , incidence (geometry) , surgery , complication , disease , transplantation , upper gastrointestinal endoscopy , pathology , physics , alternative medicine , optics
Background: Upper gastrointestinal (GI) endoscopic abnormalities are common in symptomatic bone marrow transplant (BMT) recipients but the incidence of occult gastrointestinal disease in these patients is unknown. Aims: To examine the role of screening upper GI endoscopy before and after BMT. Methods: Endoscopy was performed routinely on allogeneic (n = 24) and autologous (n = 17) BMT patients before transplant and at 30 and 120 days after transplant. Results: Twenty‐one of 41 patients (51%) had an endoscopic abnormality on one or more occasions which necessitated a change in treatment. These abnormalities were present in ten of 41 (24%) pre‐transplant endoscopies, ten of 32 (31%) endoscopies at day 30 after BMT, and in seven of 22 (32%) day 120 endoscopies. Abnormalities included mucosal erosions or ulcers (n = 22 endoscopies), infections (n = 5) or previously undiagnosed GI graft‐versus‐host disease (n = 3). Mucosal erosions or ulcers were present in eight of 28 endoscopies despite regular anti ulcer drug therapy. Conclusions: Screening upper GI endoscopy before and after BMT is generally safe and detects a high yield of significant GI abnormalities. However, it remains to be demonstrated that treatment of these lesions will improve the clinical outcome in BMT recipients without GI symptoms.