HISTOPATHOLOGICAL DIAGNOSIS OF GASTROINTESTINAL BIOPSY SAMPLES WITH ENDOSCOPIC FINDING OF ERYTHEMA: A RETROSPECTIVE STUDY

Background & Aims: Gastrointestinal diseases are common clinical conditions and due to the fact that in a significant number of endoscopic cases, the only finding is mucosal erythema,, this study was performed to evaluate the histopathological findings of gastrointestinal diseases with only mucosal erythema. Materials & Methods: In this analytical-descriptive and retrospective study, all gastrointestinal pathology reports of endoscopy samples with only mucosal erythema in endoscopy were studied in pathology department of Urmia Imam Khomeini Hospital during March 2016 to March 2017. The histopathological type of lesions were categorized in two major groups (neoplastic and non neoplastic) according to the anatomical site (esophagus, stomach, small and large intestine), age, and gender. Results: Among the 4345 gastrointestinal endoscopic samples, 1072 cases, with endoscopic finding of only erythema were studied. The mean age of the subjects was 44.8 ± 16.02 years. The frequency of neoplastic lesions was 0% and of non-neoplastic lesions, 100%. The frequency of non-neoplastic lesions according to the anatomical site was 53.45% for large intestine, 23.9% for small intestine, 19.12% for stomach, and 3.5% for esophagus. In the esophagus, stomach, small, and large intestine, the most common lesions were chronic inflammation (44.7%, mostly in women), chronic gastritis without H. pylori (58%, mostly in men), non-specific change (80.5% frequently in women), and nonspecific change (68.9%, more frequent in men), and the p values were 0.45, 0.67, 0.55, and 0.1, respectively. Conclusion: Erythema is a very common finding in endoscopy and due to its association with non-neoplastic, precancerous lesions such as GERD, H. pylori infection and ulcerative colitis, it is recommended to take biopsy from all patients with erythema in endoscopy to detect and diagnose any probable precancerous lesions.