Affiliations 

  • 1 University of Malaya Medical Centre
MyJurnal

Abstract

If bleeding rate is less than 0.5 ml per minute, technetium-labelled red blood cell scans may be useful in demonstrating the lesion, which can detect rates as low as 0.1 ml per minute. The source of the active bleeding can be identified in up to 85% of cases. However, in cases of inactive bleeding, the study is accurate in only 40-60% of patients. The procedure is however time consuming and not widely available. Magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) had been reported to be able to diagnose an active lower GI bleeding. Contrast enhanced MRA is a non-invasive, three-dimensional imaging technique that delivers high spatial resolution and high contrast between exogenous contrast and native tissue. MRI can identify an extravasated blood pool with 100% sensitivity and specificity, compared with 78% specificity for nuclear scintigraphy. The excellent results for MRI could be achieved only in an idealized and controlled environment; therefore this investigation is not applicable in our situation. However, the procedure is time consuming and requires patient’s cooperation.