Incidence of Dysplasia in Patients with Barrett’s Esophagus

Abstract

Background Barrett’s esophagus is a condition which predisposes towards development of dysplasia and finally towards esophageal adenocarcinoma, a highly lethal tumour which has been increasing in incidence over the past three decades. Although BE is the single best identified risk factor for the development of esophageal adenocarcinoma, yet the overwhelming majority of Barrett’s patients will never develop this cancer. Objective To evaluate the incidence of dysplasia in patients with BE regarding risk factors such as gender, smoking, obesity, patient’s age, duration of reflux, treatment received, associated disease as DM and esophageal histopathology. Patients and Methods The study was conducted on 30 patients previously diagnosed with BE. The patients were selected according to some inclusion criteria such as being diagnosed by upper GI endoscopy and a biopsy was taken. Patients with history of previous anti-reflux surgery were excluded. Results A strong correlation was found between the incidence of dysplasia and male gender, mean age 58.17 years, smoking, DM, hiatus hernia and esophagitis. Conclusion As the incidence of dysplasia and esophageal adenocarcinoma continues to rise at an alarming rate, widespread endoscopic surveillance of Barrett’s esophagus patients is performed in order to detect any abnormality at an earlier and potentially curable stage. In addition to highlighting the risk factors that aggravates this pre-malignant condition.