Upper GI Bleeding Helps-New Stuff

[Nancy]

Joe has had the argon plasma coagulation procedure mentioned in this article, and will also have the capsule endoscopy mentioned.

Oddly enough, the case history written about mimics Joe's situation so much, it was scary when I read it.

I thought it might help those who are having GI tract bleeding.

http://www.vhjoe.com/Volume2Issue2/2-2-2.htm

[Phyllis]

Thanks, Nancy. So glad Joe is getting the newest and best in diagnostic tests and hope he has the optimal relief and good result.

[Nancy]

I just noticed the web address for the procedure contains the letters joe, making it even more eerie.

[Mary]

Nancy,
I wonder what caused the angiodysplastic lesions in the patient?

[Nancy]

From what I have read (and it has been very limited) it looks like age plays a factor, but the interesting thing is that valve problems have been mentioned too. I know Joe has portal hypertension from his congestive liver, and that has been mentioned as well. So far they have only looked at his esophagus and stomach and large bowel (lg. bowel was OK). I am interested to find out what the capsule endoscopy shows in his small bowel, since he had a fairly sizeable area in his stomach that showed friable irritated areas (about 1/3 of his stomach), and that was the area that was treated.

Here are some of the articles I read.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=9885674&dopt=Abstract

http://www.emedicine.com/med/topic134.htm

http://www.endoskopischer-atlas.de/k19e.htm