Upper Gastrointestinal Endoscopic Biopsy; Morphological Spectrum of Lesions

.. Background: Upper GI endoscopy is an established procedure for investigating a wide range of upper GI conditions especially inflammatory and malignant diseases of stomach and esophagus. A good correlation in diagnosis can be achieved by complementing endoscopic findings with histology of biopsy specimens. Aims and objectives: 1) To evaluate morphological patterns of upper GI conditions. 2) To correlate endoscopic characterization of upper GI lesions with histopathological assessment of biopsy specimens. Study design: A retrospective descriptive study. Period: Four year period from January 2010 to December 2013. Setting: Department of Pathology, LUMHS and were histologically assessed. Material and methods: A total of 433 upper GI endoscopic biopsies were received. Patient’s age, gender and presenting complaints were noted. Results: Stomach was the most frequent site of endoscopic biopsy (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; age range, 9-90 years and male: female ratio is 1:1.6. Esophageal malignancy was the commonest neoplastic 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 diagnosis with majority of the cases showing grade-II pathology. Conclusion: This large retrospective institutional based study showed a good correlation between endoscopic and histological diagnosis. It further shows that esophagus is the predominant site of upper GI malignancy with strong female predominance. Further studies are needed to identify the underlying risk factors. Key word: Upper GI endoscopy, Histopathology, Squamous cell carcinoma. 1. MBBS, M. Phil (Histopathology)