Novel upper gastrointestinal monitoring system to track upper gastrointestinal bleeding: A pilot study

Abstract

Background and study aims Early detection of upper gastrointestinal (UGI) rebleeding is not easy by observing clinical symptoms. We developed a novel UGI monitoring system and aimed to test its feasibility of continuous tracking of UGI bleeding. Patients and methods A prospective study was conducted on patients with moderate to high risk of rebleeding. The UGI monitoring system was installed to monitor their gastric contents. It would alarm if rebleeding was suspected and the physician could review the images to make a further decision. The patient’s comfort level was also evaluated. Results Sixteen patients were enrolled. Rebleeding occurred in one patient and was detected by this system more than 5 hours earlier than with clinical symptoms. The interobserver reliability for reviewing the images to define the blood clearance in the stomach was excellent (intraclass correlation coefficient 0.79–0.96). The comfort level assessed by patients was 1.90 ± 1.39 (on the scale of 0–5). Conclusions This pilot study demonstrated the potential of this UGI monitoring system for early detection of rebleeding.