What are the risk factors for rebleeding after negative angiography?

Acute non-variceal gastrointestinal bleeding accounts for approximately 20% of emergency room visits and 5% of admissions. Although endoscopy has been used as a first-line treatment option in patients with gastrointestinal bleeding, angiographic intervention can be used as a safe diagnostic and treatment method in patients with gastrointestinal bleeding that is refractory to endoscopic treatment. The incidence of rebleeding in patients with negative initial angiography has been reported in up to 60% of cases. However, little is known about the predictive factors for rebleeding.

A research article to be published on August 28, 2009 in the World Journal of Gastroenterology addresses this question. A research team led by Hyo-Cheol Kim from Seoul National University Hospital, Korea, identified the possible predictive factors for rebleeding after negative angiographic findings in patients with acute non-variceal gastrointestinal bleeding.

One hundred and twenty eight patients with acute non-variceal gastrointestinal bleeding had negative findings after initial angiography. Clinical and laboratory parameters were analyzed retrospectively.

They found that clinical factors including underlying malignancy, liver cirrhosis, and hematemesis are important predictors for rebleeding after angiographically negative findings in patients with acute non-variceal gastrointestinal bleeding.

Reference: Joo I, Kim HC, Chung JW, Jae HJ, Park JH. Risk factors for rebleeding after angiographically negative acute gastrointestinal bleeding. World J Gastroenterol 2009;
15(32): 4023-4027

http://www.wjgnet.com/1007-9327/15/4023.asp

Correspondence to: Hyo-Cheol Kim, MD, Department of Radiology, Seoul National University Hospital, # 28 Yongondong,Chongno-gu, Seoul 110-744, South Korea.

About World Journal of Gastroenterology

World Journal of Gastroenterology (WJG), a leading international journal in gastroenterology and hepatology, has established a reputation for publishing first class research on esophageal cancer, gastric cancer, liver cancer, viral hepatitis, colorectal cancer, and H pylori infection and provides a forum for both clinicians and scientists. WJG has been indexed and abstracted in Current Contents/Clinical Medicine, Science Citation Index Expanded (also known as SciSearch) and Journal Citation Reports/Science Edition, Index Medicus, MEDLINE and PubMed, Chemical Abstracts, EMBASE/Excerpta Medica, Abstracts Journals, Nature Clinical Practice Gastroenterology and Hepatology, CAB Abstracts and Global Health. ISI JCR 2008 IF: 2.081. WJG is a weekly journal published by WJG Press. The publication dates are the 7th, 14th, 21st, and 28th day of every month. WJG is supported by The National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 30224801 and No. 30424812, and was founded with the name of China National Journal of New Gastroenterology on October 1, 1995, and renamed WJG on January 25, 1998.

September 16, 2009