Prediction of Significant Lesions on Capsule Endoscopy in Patients with Suspected Small Bowel Bleeding: External Validation of SSB Capsule Dx Score

Introduction: Deciding which patients with suspected small bowel bleeding (SSB) would benefit most from small bowel capsule endoscopy (SBCE) is challenging. Our aim was to perform an external validation of the recently developed SSB Capsule Diagnostic (Dx) score that includes 3 variables (hospital admission with overt bleeding, hemoglobin <6.4 g/dL and age <54 years) and has been shown to be potentially useful in limiting the use of SBCE in SSB low-risk patients. Methods: Retrospectively included all adult patients submitted to SBCE for SSB between November 2007 and December 2019. Patients’ demographic, clinical and laboratorial data at the time of SBCE were recorded. Small bowel lesions were classified according to Saurin classification. The SSB Capsule Dx score was calculated, and its calibration and discrimination ability were assessed. Results: We assessed 473 SBCEs for SSB. Patients’ mean age was 61.2 ± 17.9 years and 65.8% were female. P2 lesions were present in 36.2% of SBCEs. There was a significant association between the score and P2 lesions (p < 0.001). Mean score was −0.21 ± 0.87 having a fair accuracy toward the outcome (C-statistic 0.700; 95% confidence interval, 0.652–0.749; p < 0.001). A cutoff value of 0 was found to have a high sensitivity (86.0%) and negative predictive value (84.9%) for the diagnosis of P2 lesions at SBCE. Conclusion: Patients with a SSB Capsule Dx score <0 are unlikely to have a significant lesion on SBCE, thus its routine use in the clinical practice may be useful in the identification of low-risk SSB patients.