A STUDY OF THE EFFECTS OF BOWEL PREPARATION ON CEA LEVELS IN PATIENTSUNDERGOING SURVEILLANCE COLONOSCOPY

Mechanical bowel preparation has been postulated to be another cause o f 'false rise' of serum carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) levels. Further more, it was shown that high-risk patients for colorectal cancer had a greater rise in serum CEA after bowel preparation. To verify these fi ndings, a prospective study of 24 consecutive patients in our surgical endoscopic unit on the effect of mechanical bowel preparation of seru m CEA level as carried out from January to March 1994. Blood samples w ere taken before and after bowel preparation for patients undergoing s urveillance colonoscopy for various reasons. Our study did not show an y relationship between serum CEA levels and bowel preparation. No rise of serum CEA was found even in high-risk patients after bowel prepara tion.