A Simple Pre-endoscopy Score for Predicting Risk of Malignancy in Patients with Dyspepsia: A 5-Year Prospective Study.

BACKGROUND: The guidelines for performing endoscopy in dyspeptic patients based on clinical parameters alone have shown variable performance, and there is a need for better prediction tools. AIM: We aimed to prospectively develop and validate a simple clinical-cum-laboratory test-based scoring model to identify dyspeptic patients with high risk of upper gastrointestinal malignancy (UGIM). METHODS: Adult patients with dyspeptic symptoms were prospectively recruited over 5 years. Clinical details including alarm features were recorded, and blood tests for hemoglobin and albumin were done before endoscopy. The presence of UGIM was the primary outcome. Risk factors for UGIM were assessed, and based on the OR of significant factors, a predictive scoring model was constructed. ROC curve was plotted to identify optimal cutoff score. The model was validated using bootstrapping technique. RESULTS: The study included 2324 patients (41.9 ± 12.8 years; 33.4% females). UGIM was noted in 6.8% patients. The final model had following five positive predictors for UGIM-age > 40 years (OR 3.3, score 1); albumin ≤ 3.5 g% (OR 3.4, score 1); Hb ≤ 11 g% (OR 3.3, score 1); alarm features (OR 5.98, score 2); recent onset of symptoms (OR 8.7, score 3). ROC curve had an impressive AUC of 0.9 (0.88-0.93), and a score of 2 had 92.5% sensitivity in predicting UGIM. Validation by bootstrapping showed zero bias, which further strengthened our model. CONCLUSION: This simple clinical-cum-laboratory test-based model performed very well in identifying dyspeptic patients at risk of UGIM. This can serve as a useful decision-making tool for referral for endoscopy.

Distinguishing Crohn's disease from intestinal tuberculosis--a prospective study.

BACKGROUND: Distinguishing Crohn's disease (CD) from intestinal tuberculosis (ITB) is clinically challenging but important for prognostication and patient management. METHODS: Patients with diagnosis of CD and ITB were prospectively enrolled in the study from January 2006 to October 2007. The patients were followed up for further 15 months to ascertain that the diagnosis had not changed. Clinical, laboratory, serological [IgG anti Saccharomyces cerevisiae antibody (ASCA)], endoscopic and histologic features were compared between the ITB and CD patients. The ASCA titers were estimated in 100 healthy controls. Patients were diagnosed as ASCA positive when their ASCA titers were three standard deviations above mean of controls. RESULTS: Thirty patients with CD (age 33.9 + 15.2 years, 70% males) and thirty with ITB (age 35.1 + 12.2years, 53.3% males) were included in the study. Features commoner in CD were longer duration of symptoms (p < 0.001), blood mixed stool (p = 0.006), presence of longitudinal ulcers (p = 0.005) and skip lesions (p = 0.008) on colonoscopy and more number of colonic segments involved (p = 0.004). Anorexia was commoner in ITB patients (p = 0.008). Positive ASCA was commoner in CD (30%) than ITB (10%) but did not reach statistical significance (p = 0.1). CONCLUSIONS: A combined evaluation of clinical features, endoscopy, histology and response to treatment is the key to differentiate between CD and ITB.

Visceral larva migrans presenting as multiple liver abscesses.

Eosinophilic necrotizing granulomas in the liver, known as visceral larva migrans (VLM), are a rare cause of liver abscesses. The term VLM refers to infections in human tissues caused by the larval stages of ascarid worms of dogs and cats. We report two cases of VLM which presented with high grade fever and abdominal pain for 3-4 months. Marked peripheral eosinophilia, multiple confluent perivenous lesions in the right lobe of liver with characteristic migratory tracts on imaging and biopsy evidence of necrotizing eosinophilic granulomas led to the diagnosis. Complete recovery was achieved with repeated courses of a combination of anthelmintics.

Time trends in epidemiology of peptic ulcer disease in India over two decades.

BACKGROUND: Epidemiology of peptic ulcer disease (PUD) in India differs from that in the West. It may have undergone a change with recent improvement in hygiene and availability of potent antisecretory and ulcerogenic drugs. We therefore tried to assess time-trends in the frequency of PUD over the past two decades. METHODS: Records of patients with uninvestigated dyspepsia and no alarm symptoms who had undergone upper gastrointestinal endoscopy at our institution during the years 1988 (n = 2,358), 1992 (n = 2,240), 1996 (n = 5,261), 2000 (n = 7,051), 2004 (n = 5,767) and 2008 (n = 7,539) were retrospectively reviewed. The frequencies of duodenal and gastric ulcer disease in these groups were compared. RESULTS: Of the 30,216 patients (age:41.7±12.7 years, 34 % females) during the six study periods, 2,360 (7.8 %) had PUD. The frequencies of both duodenal ulcer and gastric ulcer showed a decline from 1988 to 2008, i.e. from 12 % to 2.9 % and 4.5 % to 2.7 %, respectively (p-value <0.001 for trend for each). The decline was more marked for duodenal ulcer, and the ratio of duodenal to gastric ulcer declined from 2.7 in 1988 to 1.1 in 2008. CONCLUSIONS: The epidemiology of PUD in India may have changed in the past two decades with the incidence of duodenal ulcer declining more rapidly than that of gastric ulcer.