Radiotelemetric ambulatory 24 hour oesophageal pH measurement was carried out in 17 patients with symptomatic manometrically proven achalasia before and after pneumatic dilatation. Before dilatation an abnormally high percentage acid exposure time was present but typical episodes of gastro-oesophageal reflux occurred in only one patient. In nine patients who had a oesophageal food residue these...

CONCLUSION Bidirectional oesophageal dilatation for severe chemoradiation-induced oesophageal strictures is efficacious in improving luminal patency but ineffective in relieving functional dysphagia. OBJECTIVE To assess the efficacy of bidirectional oesophageal dilatation in the severely strictured oesophagus induced by radiation therapy following the treatment of head and neck malignancies. ...

AIMS To investigate the aberrant expression of CD117 in oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) and its prognostic significance. METHODS AND RESULTS Immunohistochemical staining for CD117 was performed on tissue microarray and routine tissue sections from 157 oesophageal SCC patients and 10 normal oesophageal epithelia adjacent to tumour. The positive rate of CD117 expression was 29.9% in o...

Over a three year period (1 July 1986 to 30 June 1989) all newly diagnosed and histologically proved cases of oesophageal and gastric cancer were recorded prospectively. Some 1515 cases of oesophageal cancer (1050 men and 465 women) and 966 cases of gastric cancer (789 men and 177 women) were registered. Seven patients had simultaneous oesophageal and gastric cancer. Age standardised incidence ...

Congenital oesophageal respiratory tract fistula presenting in adult life is rare. A tracheo-oesophageal and a broncho-oesophageal fistula presenting in a 22 year old female and 68 year male, respectively, are described. In both, symptoms of chronic recurrent pulmonary suppuration were initially attributed to alternative aetiologies, resulting in diagnostic delay and inappropriate management. C...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Oesophageal pH is conventionally recorded from a point 5 cm above the lower oesophageal sphincter. However, the mucosal changes of reflux oesophagitis and intestinal metaplasia tend to affect the segment of oesophagus distal to this and close to the squamocolumnar junction. This study set out to investigate oesophageal acid exposure of squamous mucosa close to the squamocolu...

AIMS To determine the value of squamous mucosal histology in the assessment of patients with gastro-oesophageal reflux symptoms. METHODS Sixty six patients with reflux symptoms underwent endoscopy with oesophageal biopsy, manometry, and 24 hour oesophageal pH testing. The following histological features were assessed in squamous mucosa: the degree of basal cell hyperplasia, the degree of papi...

Treatment with a combination of chemotherapy and radiotherapy is known to be associated with oesophageal stricture in both children and adults with malignancies. However, oesophageal stricture resulting from chemotherapy alone is a rare complication, with few reports on it. We experienced a rare paediatric case of oesophageal stricture caused by chemotherapy for osteosarcoma of the left distal ...

Objective: To study clinical characteristics and mycology of cutaneous candidiasis in Ahwaz (Iran). Design: Four hundered sixty one patients were examined for cutaneous candidiasis over a period of 4 years from different medical mycology laboratories in Ahwaz. Patients and Methods: Skin scrapings, nail clippings and swabs were obtained from the lesions of 461 subjects. Samples were prepared by ...

The aim of this study was to determine the impact of bethanechol administration concomitant to radiotherapy (RT) on oral mucositis, candidiasis and taste loss. We performed a secondary analysis of a previously conducted prospective randomized trial which evaluated the effect of bethanechol on salivary gland dysfunction before, during, and after RT for head and neck cancer (HNC), in comparison t...