Effectiveness of esophagogastroduodenoscopy in changing treatment outcome in refractory gastro-esophageal reflux disease.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: The effectiveness of screening esophagogastroduodenoscopy (EGD) for refractory gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) symptoms alone has not been validated. METHODS: We performed an observational study of patients with refractory GERD who underwent EGD from 2013 to 2016 at a tertiary hospital. Among 928 patients with GERD, we excluded patients with other alarm features, other indications for EGD, history of gastroesophageal surgery, or EGD done for other diagnostic procedures, and identified 301 patients who underwent EGD solely for persistent reflux symptoms such as heartburn or regurgitation. RESULTS: Among 301 patients with refractory GERD, 81.4% of patients were taking PPIs. 49.8% of patients had completely normal EGD findings and 33.6% of patients had benign or incidental findings. Two patients (0.6%) had LA grade C or D esophagitis, and 16.3% of patients had irregular Z line or salmon-colored mucosa. 91.0% (122/134) who had a biopsy had normal or benign findings. 4.0% (12/301) of patients had biopsy-proven intestinal metaplasia which is similar to the previously known prevalence of intestinal metaplasia in patients without heartburn (5.6%) and none had dysplasia or malignancy. Male sex was associated with endoscopic intestinal metaplasia suspected lesions in multivariate analysis (OR: 1.96, 95% CI: 1.04-3.70, p = .036) but not biopsy-proven intestinal metaplasia. Elderly age, obesity, alcohol or cigarette consumption, PPI use, GERD duration >3-5 years did not predict endoscopically suspected or biopsy-proven intestinal metaplasia. Only 5% of patients had a pH-impedance study for refractory reflux symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: Most patients who underwent EGD for refractory GERD symptoms alone did not have pathological findings requiring a change in management. Screening EGD for patients only with persistent reflux symptoms should not be routinely recommended.

Practice Patterns in Hepatitis B Virus Screening Before Cancer Chemotherapy in a Major US Hospital Network.

BACKGROUND: Cancer patients receiving chemotherapy face an increased risk of reactivation of chronic hepatitis B virus infection. AIM: To determine the HBV screening rate in patients receiving cancer chemotherapy in various clinical settings. METHOD: We identified 11,959 adult cancer patients (age ≥ 18 years) receiving parenteral chemotherapy between 2012 and 2015 within a major US hospital network, including a large university hospital, community teaching hospitals, and community oncology clinics. RESULT: Two thousand and forty-five patients (17.1%) were screened for either HBV surface antigen (HBsAg) or HBV core antibody (HBcAb) before chemotherapy, and 1850 patients (15.5%) had both HBsAg and HBcAb tested before chemotherapy. 8.4% were exposed to HBV, and 0.9% had chronic HBV infection (both HBsAg/HBcAb positive). Patients with hematologic tumor were more often screened than with solid tumor (55.6 vs. 8.3%, p < 0.001). Patients receiving chemotherapy with higher HBV reactivation risk had higher yet suboptimal HBV screening rate (41.1% B-depleting agents, 21.5% anthracycline, 14.9% steroid, 64.7% anti-TNF alpha and 18.6% other chemotherapy, p < 0.001). Patients with age ≥ 50 years (old 16.2% vs. young 23.9%, p < 0.001) and Asian ethnicity (Asian 13.6 vs. Caucasian 16.6%, p < 0.001) were screened less for HBV despite higher prevalence of HBV exposure (old 9.3% vs. young 4.3%, p < 0.001 and Asian 27.8% vs. Caucasian 6.4%, p < 0.001). Patients receiving chemotherapy in community oncology clinics were less screened versus community teaching hospitals or university hospital (12.7 vs. 19.1 vs. 19.7%, p < 0.001), despite similar prevalence of HBV infection. On multivariate analysis, receiving chemotherapy at a community oncology clinic [odds ratio (OR) 0.57, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.45-0.72, p < 0.001] was independently associated with less HBV screening compared to receiving chemotherapy at a university or community teaching hospital. CONCLUSION: HBV screening among patients undergoing cancer chemotherapy was suboptimal and less commonly performed in community oncology clinics compared to teaching hospitals.

Herpes Simplex Virus-2 Esophagitis in a Young Immunocompetent Adult.

Herpes simplex esophagitis (HSE) is commonly identified in immunosuppressed patients. It is rare among immunocompetent patients and almost all of the reported cases are due to HSV-1 infection. HSV-2 esophagitis is extremely rare. We report the case of a young immunocompetent male who presented with dysphagia, odynophagia, and epigastric pain. Endoscopy showed multitudes of white nummular lesions in the distal esophagus initially suspected to be candida esophagitis. However, classic histopathological findings of multinucleated giant cells with eosinophilic intranuclear inclusions and positive HSV-2 IgM confirmed the diagnosis of HSV-2 esophagitis. The patient rapidly responded to acyclovir treatment. Although HSV-2 is predominantly associated with genital herpes, it can cause infections in other parts of the body previously attributed to only HSV-1 infection.