Background: Upper digestive endoscopy is important for the evaluation of patients submitted to fundoplication, especially to elucidate postoperative symptoms. However, endoscopic assessment of fundoplication anatomy and its complications is poorly standardized among endoscopists, which leads to inadequate agreement. Aim: To assess the frequency of postoperative abnormalities of fundoplication anatomy using a modified endoscopic classification and to correlate endoscopic findings with clinical symptoms. Method: This is a prospective observational study, conducted at a single center. Patients were submitted to a questionnaire for data collection. Endoscopic assessment of fundoplication was performed according to the classification in study, which considered four anatomical parameters including the gastroesophageal junction position in frontal view (above or at the level of the pressure zone); valve position at retroflex view (intra-abdominal or migrated); valve conformation (total, partial, disrupted or twisted) and paraesophageal hernia (present or absent). Results: One hundred patients submitted to fundoplication were evaluated, 51% male (mean age: 55.6 years). Forty-three percent reported postoperative symptoms. Endoscopic abnormalities of fundoplication anatomy were reported in 46% of patients. Gastroesophageal junction above the pressure zone (slipped fundoplication), and migrated fundoplication, were significantly correlated with the occurrence of postoperative symptoms. There was no correlation between symptoms and conformation of the fundoplication (total, partial or twisted). Conclusion: This modified endoscopic classification proposal of fundoplication anatomy is reproducible and seems to correlate with symptomatology. The most frequent abnormalities observed were slipped and migrated fundoplication, and both correlated with the presence of symptoms.
BACKGROUND
Many studies evaluated magnification endoscopy (ME) to correlate changes on the gastric mucosal surface with
Helicobacter pylori
(
H. pylori
) infection. However, few studies validated these concepts with high-definition endoscopy without ME.
AIM
To access the association between mucosal surface pattern under near focus technology and
H. pylori
infection status in a western population.
METHODS
Cross-sectional study including all patients referred to routine upper endoscopy. Endoscopic exams were performed using standard high definition (S-HD) followed by near focus (NF-HD) examination. Presence of erythema, erosion, atrophy, and nodularity were recorded during S-HD, and surface mucosal pattern was classified using NF-HD in the gastric body. Biopsies were taken for rapid urease test and histology.
RESULTS
One hundred and eighty-seven patients were analyzed from August to November 2019. Of those, 47 (25.1%) were
H. pylori
+, and 42 (22.5%) had a previous
H. pylori
treatment. In the examination with S-HD, erythema had the best sensitivity for
H. pylori
detection (80.9%). Exudate (99.3%), nodularity (97.1%), and atrophy (95.7%) demonstrated better specificity values, but with low sensitivity (6.4%-19.1%). On the other hand, the absence of erythema was strongly associated with
H. pylori
- (negative predictive value = 92%). With NF-HD, 56.2% of patients presented type 1 pattern (regular arrangement of collecting venules, RAC), and only 5.7% of RAC+ patients were
H. pylori
+. The loss of RAC presented 87.2% sensitivity for
H. pylori
detection, 70.7% specificity, 50% positive predictive value, and 94.3% negative predictive value, indicating that loss of RAC was suboptimal to confirm
H. pylori
infection, but when RAC was seen,
H. pylori
infection was unlikely.
CONCLUSION
The presence of RAC at the NF-HD exam and the absence of erythema at S-HD were highly predictive of
H. pylori
negative status. On the other hand, the loss of RAC had a suboptimal correlation with the presence of
H. pylori
.
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