Secretory function of Barrett's epithelium.

EDITORIAL SYNOPSIS A detailed study is recorded of a patient with the oesophagus lined with gastric type epithelium associated with a hiatus hernia, and a benign stricture and peptic ulceration at the level of the aortic arch. Investigations showed that ectopic epithelium was present in biopsies taken along the whole length of the oesophagus and that the motor function of the body of the oesophagus was disordered and the gastro-oesophageal sphincter feeble and incompetent. Biopsies of the mucosa had the typical histological appearance of gastric mucosa, containing both chief cells with pepsinogen granules and parietal cells which responded to histamine stimulation by the secretion of hydrochloric acid. Over a year following these investigations the patient was readmitted and died with a carcinoma of the mid oesophagus. Post-mortem examination showed that the gastriclike mucosa was distributed in islands throughout the entire oesophagus.