Assessment of a Colonoscopy Triage Sheet for Use in a Province-Wide Population-Based Colorectal Screening Program.

"Competing Interests The authors declare no competing interests."

"Our sample did not include sufficient numbers of patients without symptoms to create a stable multivariable model. Patients with symptoms represent the population that motivated the creation of the hierarchal set of indications appearing in the CTS. The assigned CTS priority ratings and their predictive ability varied according to whether they were assigned by the referring physician or the endoscopist; urgent priority ratings (P1 or P2, colonoscopy within 14 days) were predictors of tumors and of clinically significant findings as opposed to more elective ratings (P4 (least urgent priority rating for patients with symptoms) or P5 (average-risk screening patients)); similar results were noted for the surveillance priority P6 compared to the screening priority P5. Internal validation of our analyses is supported in our cohort by the findings that older individuals were most at risk of developing a tumor, and male gender was significantly associated with clinical significant lesions, as both are widely recognized in the literature []."