Published online Oct 16, 2020. doi: 10.4253/wjge.v12.i10.341
Peer-review started: July 23, 2020
First decision: August 22, 2020
Revised: August 28, 2020
Accepted: September 8, 2020
Article in press: September 8, 2020
Published online: October 16, 2020
Processing time: 83 Days and 22.6 Hours
Acute gastrointestinal (GI) graft-vs-host disease (aGVHD) is the most complication of hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT) in patients with hematologic malignancy. Limited data exists on endoscopic evaluation of GVHD in post-HSCT patients with differing GI symptoms. Further, the diagnostic value of gross endoscopic findings as well as the safety of endoscopy in this commonly thrombocytopenic and neutropenic patient population remains unclear.
To understand the diagnostic value of symptoms and gross endoscopic findings as well as safety of endoscopy in aGVHD patients.
We analyzed 195 endoscopies performed at City of Hope in patients who underwent allogeneic HSCT less than 100 d prior for hematologic malignancy and were subsequently evaluated for aGVHD via endoscopy. The yield, sensitivity, and specificity of diagnosing aGVHD were calculated for upper and lower endoscopy, various GI tract locations, and presenting symptoms.
Combined esophagogastroduodenoscopy (EGD) and flexible sigmoidoscopy (FS) demonstrated a greater diagnostic yield for aGVHD (83.1%) compared to EGD (66.7%) or FS (77.2%) alone with any presenting symptom. The upper and lower GI tract demonstrated similar yields regardless of whether patients presented with diarrhea (95.7% vs 99.1%) or nausea/vomiting (97.5% vs 96.8%). Normal-appearing mucosa was generally as specific (91.3%) as abnormal mucosa (58.7%-97.8%) for the presence of aGVHD. Adverse events such as bleeding (1.0%), infection (1.0%), and perforation (0.5%) only occurred in a small proportion of patients, with no significant differences in those with underlying thrombocytopenia (P = 1.000) and neutropenia (P = 0.425).
Combined EGD and FS with biopsies of normal and inflamed mucosa demonstrated the greatest diagnostic yield regardless of presenting symptom and appears to be safe in this population of patients.
Core Tip: We analyzed a retrospective cohort of 195 endoscopies performed in cancer patients who had a hematopoietic stem cell transplant less than 100 d prior to endoscopy and evaluated the diagnostic value of various endoscopic procedures, gross endoscopic findings, and presenting symptoms. Our findings show that combined esophagogastroduodenoscopy and flexible sigmoidoscopy with biopsies of normal and abnormal-appearing mucosa results in the greatest yield for diagnosing acute gastrointestinal graft-vs-host disease independent of symptoms. Additionally, we found no significant difference in adverse events in patients with and without thrombocytopenia and neutropenia.