The Role of Videocapsule Endoscopy in the Diagnosis and Follow-up of Celiac Disease: a Scoping Review

Introduction: Videocapsule endoscopy (VCE) may be a complementary tool in the diagnosis of celiac disease (CD) in cases with equivocal findings and in the follow-up of complicated cases. We aimed to summarize the literature on the utilization of VCE in CD diagnosis/follow-up.

Methods: A computerized literature search was performed to identify pertinent articles published between January 2010 and January 2024.

Results: Three studies focused on VCE in diagnosing CD, involving a total of 186 patients. VCE was performed due to small bowel atrophy with negative serology (19 patients), positive serology with negative histology (40 patients), contraindications/refusal to undergo esophagogastroduodenoscopy (6 patients), high clinical suspicion of CD despite negative serology and/or small bowel atrophy (99 patients), research purpose (22 patients). Twenty studies focused on the follow-up, involving a total of 1337 patients. VCE was performed due to positive serology despite GFD (64 patients), persistent symptoms (389 patients), known/suspected refractory CD-RCD (448 patients), not specified (436 patients). VCE revealed RCD in 243 patients, ulcerative jejunoileitis in 32, T-cell lymphoma in 18, small bowel tumor in one.

Conclusions: VCE may play a role in patients with equivocal CD diagnosis and in those with suspected complications, particularly RCD. Further studies are warranted to draw more solid conclusions.