Elevated Gastric Antrum Erosions in Portal Hypertension Patients: Peptic Disease or Mucosal Congestion?

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Portal hypertension (PH) is a syndrome characterized by chronic increase in the pressure gradient between the portal vein and inferior vena cava. Previous studies have suggested an increased frequency of antral elevated erosive gastritis in patients with PH, as well as an etiologic association; however, there has not been any histological evidence of this hypothesis to date. Our aim was to evaluate the histological features found in elevated antral erosions in patients with portal hypertension. METHODS: Sixty-nine patients were included; 28 with and 41 without PH. All patients underwent endoscopy, and areas with elevated antral erosion were biopsied. RESULTS: In the PH group, 24 patients had inflammatory infiltration with or without edema and vascular congestion, and 4 patients had no inflammation. In the group without PH, all patients showed inflammatory infiltration of variable intensity. There was no statistical significance between the two groups in the presence of Helicobacter pylori. There as a histological similarity between the two groups, if PH patients without inflammation were excluded; however, more edema and vascular congestion were observed in the PH group (p=0.002). CONCLUSIONS: The findings show that elevated antral erosions in patients with PH have more evident edema and vascular congestion in addition to lymphocytic infiltration.

The utility of endoscopic ultrasound guided fine needle aspiration in the diagnosis of infectious diseases-report of three cases.

Endoscopic ultrasound-guided fine needle aspiration (EUS-FNA) is a fast and minimally invasive methodology with a crucial impact on patients' management. It has an important and established role in the diagnosis and staging of mediastinal and abdominal malignancies, but little is discussed in the literature on the usefulness of this technique in the diagnosis of infectious diseases. In the current report, we present three different cases where EUS was essential for reaching the diagnosis of tuberculosis and paracoccidiodomicosis in cases otherwise seen as malignant. In conclusion, EUS was successful not only in obtaining enough cells for morphological analysis, but also for the production of cell blocks and assessment of the presence of the microorganisms by special stains. EUS allied to fine needle biopsy was an important tool in determining diagnoses of enlarged lymph nodes, revealing the diagnosis of infectious diseases in cases otherwise seen as malignant. The wide use of this methodology in cases such as those reported here cannot only rule out malignancy, but also aid critically ill patients by installing early proper therapy without the need for aggressive interventions.