First UK data for CT angiography in persisting upper GI bleeding

We read with interest the study by S Kumar et al that noted that patients with new gastrointestinal (GI) bleeding during admission to the intensive care unit (ICU) were more likely to die during hospitalisation.1 GI bleeding cannot always be controlled or identified at gastroscopy; therefore, guidelines recommend radiological intervention.2 3 Radiological intervention may be of value in uncontrolled GI bleeding where a lesion has already been identified at endoscopy or if no lesion has been detected endoscopically but the patient continues to be haemodynamically unstable. Fluoroscopic angiography (FA) is time consuming, requires significant expertise and has significant ionising radiation exposure. However, the recent advent of CT angiography (CTA) potentially offers a sensitive, rapid and accurate diagnosis of the source of persisting GI bleeding and has a lesser risk of vessel dissection or damage than catheter angiography. For these …