INTRODUCTION: The aim of our prospective study was to define endoscopy appearance of the small bowel in healthy volunteers. METHOD: Forty-two healthy volunteers underwent wireless capsule endoscopy, clinical investigation, laboratory tests, and completed a health-status questionnaire. All subjects were available for a 36-month clinical follow-up. RESULTS: Eleven subjects (26%) had fully normal endoscopy findings. Remaining 31 persons (74%), being asymptomatic, with normal laboratory results, had some minor findings at wireless capsule endoscopy. Most of those heterogeneous findings were detected in the small intestine (27/31; 87%), like erosions and/or multiple red spots, diminutive polyps and tiny vascular lesions. During a 36-month clinical follow-up, all these 42 healthy volunteers remained asymptomatic, with fully normal laboratory control. CONCLUSIONS: Significant part of healthy subjects had abnormal findings at wireless capsule endoscopy. These findings had no clinical relevance, as all these persons remained fully asymptomatic during a 36-month follow-up. Such an endoscopic appearance would be previously evaluated as "pathological". This is a principal report alerting that all findings of any control group of wireless capsule endoscopic studies must be evaluated with caution.

2nd Department of Internal Medicine Gastroenterology

Charles University Faculty of Medicine and University Hospital Hradec Králové Czech Republic

Department of Orthopedic Surgery

References provided by Crossref.org