Shape of Barrett's epithelium effects prevalence of erosive esophagitis

Barrett's epithelium is recognized as a complication of erosive esophagitis and is the pre-malignant condition for adenocarcinoma of the esophagus.

A research team from Yokohama City University School of Medicine hypothesized that some macroscopic features of Barrett's epithelium might be useful for identifying a subgroup with a high risk for the development of esophageal adenocarcinoma. Their study will be published on January 28, 2010 in the World Journal of Gastroenterology.

They enrolled 869 patients who underwent endoscopy during a health checkup at their hospital. Based on the Prague C & M Criteria, they originally classified cases of Barrett's epithelium into two types based on its shape, namely, flame-like and lotus-like Barrett's epithelium, and into two groups based on its length, its C extent < 2 cm, and ≥ 2 cm.

They found that Barrett's epithelium was diagnosed in 374 cases (43%). Most of these were diagnosed as short-segment Barrett's epithelium. The prevalence of erosive esophagitis was significantly higher in subjects with flame-like than lotus-like Barrett's epithelium, and in those with a C extent of ≥ 2 cm than < 2 cm.

This study may represent a future strategy for intervention in the prevention of esophageal adenocarcinoma.

Reference: Akiyama T, Inamori M, Iida H, Endo H, Hosono K, Sakamoto Y, Fujita K, Yoneda M, Takahashi H, Koide T, Tokoro C, Goto A, Abe Y, Shimamura T, Kobayashi N, Kubota K, Saito S, Nakajima A. Shape of Barrett's epithelium is associated with prevalence of erosive esophagitis. World J Gastroenterol 2010; 16(4): 484-489

http://www.wjgnet.com/1007-9327/16/484.asp

Correspondence to: Masahiko Inamori, MD, PhD, Gastroenterology Division, Yokohama City University School of Medicine, 3-9 Fukuura, Kanazawa-ku, Yokohama 236-0004, Japan. inamorim@med.yokohama-cu.ac.jp

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World Journal of Gastroenterology (WJG), a leading international journal in gastroenterology and hepatology, has established a reputation for publishing first class research on esophageal cancer, gastric cancer, liver cancer, viral hepatitis, colorectal cancer, and H. pylori infection and provides a forum for both clinicians and scientists. WJG has been indexed and abstracted in Current Contents/Clinical Medicine, Science Citation Index Expanded (also known as SciSearch) and Journal Citation Reports/Science Edition, Index Medicus, MEDLINE and PubMed, Chemical Abstracts, EMBASE/Excerpta Medica, Abstracts Journals, Nature Clinical Practice Gastroenterology and Hepatology, CAB Abstracts and Global Health. ISI JCR 2008 IF: 2.081. WJG is a weekly journal published by WJG Press. The publication dates are the 7th, 14th, 21st, and 28th day of every month. WJG is supported by The National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 30224801 and No. 30424812, and was founded with the name of China National Journal of New Gastroenterology on October 1, 1995, and renamed WJG on January 25, 1998.