Esophgogastroduodenoscopic Findings in 9,137 Healthy Subjects Examined for the Secondary Prevention / 대한소화기내시경학회지

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: A esophagogastroduodenoscopy is now considered to be one of the essential rnethods for diagnosis of upper gastrointestinal disease. Furthermore early detection of stomach cancer by such a mass screening techique is very important to increase the survival rate. METHODS: A clinical analysis was conducted on 9,137 healthy subjects who had undergone a gastrofiberscopic examination for the secondary prevention, from January 1995 to December 1996, in Kangbuk Samsung hospital. RESULTS: 1) Number of cases with normal finding was 764 (8.4%). 2) The most prevalent disease found was chronic gastritis (82%). The number of cases with superficial gastritis was 64.7%, erosive gastritis 9.0%, atrophic gastritis 6.4% and metaplastic gastritis 1.6%. Atrophic and metaplastic gastritis were more frequent in the older age group. 3) The prevalence of peptic ulcer was 13.9% and duodenal ulcers (8.1%) was more common than gastric ulcers (5.8%, p<0.05) with a male to female ratio of 3.7 1, and 2.1 1 respectively. 4) Of the 10 cases with stomach cancer (0.11%), 5 cases (0.055%) were found to be advanced stomach cancer and the other 5 cases (0.055%) were early gastric cancer. The macroscopic type of early gastric cancer was type IIc in 4 cases and type IIb in another case, and 4 cases were limited in mucosa but another was in submucosa. The size of 4 cases were below 1 cm and there was no lymph node metastasis. CONCLUSION: Medically screened subjects were found to have many abnormalities, and therefore, it is recommanded that regular check ups using an endoscopy would be needed for early detection of early gastric cancer regardless of clinical symptoms.