Upper Gastrointestinal Endoscopic Biopsy

Background: Upper GI endoscopy is an established procedure for investigatinga wide range of upper GI conditions especially inflammatory and malignant diseases ofstomach and esophagus. A good correlation in diagnosis can be achieved by complementingendoscopic findings with histology of biopsy specimens. Aims and objectives: 1) To evaluatemorphological patterns of upper GI conditions. 2) To correlate endoscopic characterization ofupper GI lesions with histopathological assessment of biopsy specimens. Study design: Aretrospective descriptive study. Period: Four year period from January 2010 to December 2013.Setting: Department of Pathology, LUMHS and were histologically assessed. Material andmethods: A total of 433 upper GI endoscopic biopsies were received. Patient’s age, gender andpresenting complaints were noted. Results: Stomach was the most frequent site of endoscopicbiopsy (51.3%) followed by esophagus (39%) and duodenum (9.7%). Majority of patients (51%)presented with dysphagia and abdominal pain. Mean age of presentation was 40 years; agerange, 9-90 years and male: female ratio is 1:1.6. Esophageal malignancy was the commonestneoplastic lesion with squamous cell carcinoma being the dominant histological type.Interestingly, inflammatory conditions were more common in the stomach. In the duodenum,celiac disease was clinically suspected and histopathological grading confirmed the diagnosiswith majority of the cases showing grade-II pathology. Conclusion: This large retrospectiveinstitutional based study showed a good correlation between endoscopic and histologicaldiagnosis. It further shows that esophagus is the predominant site of upper GI malignancy withstrong female predominance. Further studies are needed to identify the underlying risk factors.