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Previous two colonoscopy results predicted future risk for adenoma recurrence
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Using results from two prior colonoscopies may be more effective than results from the most recent colonoscopy alone for predicting future risk for adenoma recurrence.
Researchers analyzed data from colonoscopy findings of 564 participants from the Aspirin/Folate Polyp Prevention Study to determine the risk for adenoma recurrence.
Participants had one or more adenoma at study entry. For this analysis, participants with a first adenoma received colonoscopies at three and six years follow-up.
At the third examination, 10.3% of participants had high-risk findings. Findings on the second colonoscopy correlated with findings on the third. Nineteen percent of participants with high-risk findings on the second examination had high-risk findings on the third colonoscopy; 7.7% of participants with no adenomas on the second exam and 11% of participants with low-risk findings on the second had high-risk findings on the third exam.
If participants had high-risk findings on the second exam, results from the baseline exam conferred no added benefit for predicting future risk. However, if the second exam showed no adenomas, results of the baseline exam did add information about the likelihood of high-risk results on the third exam (12.3% if the first exam was high risk vs. 4.9% if it was low risk).
First colonoscopy findings provided little information about the third examination findings when patients had low-risk findings on the second examination.
Robertson DJ. Ann Intern Med. 2009;151:103-109.