On March 5, 2024, Professor He Shuixiang, Director of Department of Gastroenterology and Attending Physician Sun Huanhuan from the First Affiliated Hospital (FAH) of Xi'an Jiaotong University (XJTU), as participants, published a multi-center clinical study entitled "Diagnostic accuracy of magnetically guided capsule endoscopy with a detachable string for detecting oesophagogastric varices in adults with cirrhosis: prospective multicentre study" in British Medical Journal (BMJ, IF 105.7), the world's top comprehensive medical journal.

This research was initiated by Professor Liao Zhuan, President of Changhai Hospital of Naval Medical University. Professor He Shuixiang, Professor Zou Duowu from Ruijin Hospital affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Professor Zuo Xiuli from Qilu Hospital of Shandong University, Professor Wang Xiaoyan from the Third Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, Professor Liu Jun from Union Hospital of Huazhong University of Science and Technology, and Professor Qi Xiaolong from Chinese Portal Hypertension Diagnosis and Monitoring Study Group (CHESS) involved in this study. This study is also one of the fruitful clinical research results cooperated among Professor He Shuixiang's team and Li Zhaoshen, Member of CAS and Professor Liao Zhuan. PhD Jiang Xi from Department of Gastroenterology of Changhai Hospital and PhD Sun Huanhuan from FAH are the co-first authors. Professor Liao Zhuan is the corresponding author of this article.

Advanced liver cirrhosis is manifested with liver function damage and portal hypertension, etc. Esophageal and gastric variceal bleeding is one of the most common complications of portal hypertension in liver cirrhosis, and it is also one of the most frequent acute and critical diseases in clinical practice, with a 6-week mortality rate up to 15-25%. Therefore, timely screening and active prevention and treatment are effective interventions for liver cirrhosis with esophageal and gastric variceal bleeding. Gastroscopy is the gold standard for diagnosing and evaluating the severity of esophageal and gastric varices. However, as an invasive examination, the long-term screening and monitoring compliance is relatively poor.

In this study, 607 patients with liver cirrhosis from 14 medical centers in China were enrolled. With gastroscopy as the reference standard, magnetically controlled capsule endoscopy with a detachable string (ds-MCE) yielded high sensitivity and specificity for esophageal and gastric varices. The accuracy of ds-MCE in detecting high-risk esophageal and gastric varices was equivalent to that of gastroscopy. The findings in this study demonstrate that ds-MCE is a highly accurate and safe approach for diagnosing and grading esophageal and gastric varices, which is expected to replace gastroscopy for screening and monitoring esophageal and gastric varices in patients with liver cirrhosis.