prevalence of barrett's esophagus in outpatients with dyspepsia in Shaheed Beheshti Hospital of Kashan

Gastroesophageal reflux disease [GERD] is the main known etiological factor for Barrett's esophagus [BE], and BE is the precursor lesion of esophageal adenocarcinoma. The prevalence of BE is reported mostly from gastroenterology centers and there are only a few reported cases from outpatients with dyspepsia. A large number of patients with GERD have degrees of dyspepsia. This study primarily aimed to determine the prevalence of BE in dyspeptic patients. Outpatients with dyspepsia who referred to our Endoscopy Unit for endoscopy were included in this study. Esophageal biopsy was performed by an endoscopist, and BE diagnosis was established based on the abnormal appearance of the distal esophagus in endoscopy and also based on the presence of intestinal metaplasia in pathologic examination. The prevalence of BE was 5.4% [based on endoscopy] and 3.7% [based on pathology]. Sixty-nine percent of the patients with confirmed BE were younger than 50 and 31% were over 50 years of age. Eighty-one percent of the patients with confirmed BE reported GERD symptoms as their dominant dyspepsia symptom, whereas only 20.4% of those without BE reported GERD symptoms [P<0.001]. Additionally, BE had a relatively high prevalence in our dyspeptic patients. The high prevalence of GERD symptoms in BE underscores the need for endoscopy for dyspeptic patients

value of touch preparation for rapid diagnosis of brain tumors as an intraoperative consultation

The touch preparation technique is an accurate and rapid method, and when used as intraoperative consultation examination technique it preserves a good amount of tissue for paraffin embedded sections. This study aimed at examining the accuracy of the touch preparation technique by comparing its diagnosis with that of final pathological diagnosis made by microscopic examinations. The diagnoses of 139 central nervous system lesions by touch preparation technique and paraffin-embedded sections were compared. Touch preparation technique diagnosed correctly 118 [84%] of the lesions. However, the technique failed to correctly diagnose 12% of the cases. The highest rate of accurate diagnosis [100%] was observed in five types out of 11 types of tumor examined. However, the technique was not able to diagnose hydatid cysts correctly. The findings indicate that touch preparation technique may be useful in diagnosing tumor type during surgical operations. Touch preparation technique is very accurate for intraoperative diagnosis. However, adequate clinical history, neuroimaging details, and the intraoperative impressions of the neurosurgeons, if provided, help the pathologists to improve the diagnostic accuracy of the technique

Comparison of touch cytology and histology in diagnosing Helicobacter pylori infection in gastric biopsy

To compare the Touch cytology with histology method for diagnosing Helicobacter pylori [HP] infection. Dyspeptic patients who were candidate for upper gastrointestinal endoscopy were included in the study. Those using Proton Pump Inhibitors, Bismuth compounds or antibiotics over the last month or had prior gastric surgery were excluded. Imprints and histological samples were taken from gastric antrum and stained by Giemsa for HP detection. HP infection was diagnosed if the organism was present in either method. One hundred and fifty patients were included. The Sensitivity, Specificity, Positive Predictive Value and Negative Predictive Value in touch cytology method were 95.65%, 100%, 100%, and 66%, and in histology method were 84.78%, 100%, 100% and 36.36% respectively. The sensitivity of touch cytology was more than histology method. [P value < 0.001]. It is better to use cytology to diagnose HP infection when the histological information may not be necessary