Usefulness of Practitioner-Led Pancreatic Cancer Screening.

The 5-year survival rate for pancreatic cancer has improved (10%) but remains worse than that for other cancers. Early pancreatic cancer diagnosis is challenging, and delayed diagnosis can delay treatment, which impairs survival. Practitioners do not promptly refer cases to a general hospital, causing delayed discovery. Herein, we aimed to examine the usefulness of the Pancreatic Cancer Project in Matsue, whose objective is to detect pancreatic cancer in patients presenting at any medical institution in Matsue City. Clinical data were extracted from medical records, and abdominal ultrasonography and tumor marker blood level assessments were performed (n = 234; median age, 71 [range, 41-94] years; 51% male). Cases with abnormal abdominal ultrasonography or blood test findings were referred for specialist imaging and followed up. The pancreatic cancer detection rate was 6.0% (n = 14); all cases were referred to a general hospital by practitioners within 1 month. Patients had stage IA (n = 1), IIA (n = 6), IIB (n = 2), III (n = 1), and IV (n = 4) disease. Overall, pancreatic cancer could be detected at an earlier stage (I-II), but referral to a general hospital by visiting practitioners should be prompt. The Pancreatic Cancer Project in Matsue may help improve the detection and prognosis of pancreatic cancer.

Effects of Rikkunshito (TJ-43) on Esophageal Motor Function and Gastroesophageal Reflux.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Rikkunshito (TJ-43), an herbal medicine, has been demonstrated to relieve gastroesophageal reflux symptoms. However, the effects of TJ-43 on esophageal motor functions have not been fully determined. This double-blind crossover study was performed to investigate the effects of TJ-43 on esophageal motor functions and gastroesophageal reflux. METHODS: The subjects were 10 normal male volunteers. Lower esophageal sphincter pressure and esophageal body peristaltic contractions with and without 1-week administration of TJ-43 were examined in a crossover fashion. Post-prandial gastroesophageal reflux was also determined using a multi-channel impedance pH dual monitor. RESULTS: TJ-43 at a standard dose of 7.5 g/day did not significantly augment esophageal peristaltic contraction pressure measured in the proximal, middle and distal segments of the esophagus, whereas increment of resting lower esophageal sphincter pressure was observed in a supine position. In addition, TJ-43 administration did not decrease post-prandial gastroesophageal acid, non-acid reflux events or accelerate esophageal clearance time. CONCLUSIONS: TJ-43 at a standard dose did not have a significant effect on esophageal motor activity or gastroesophageal reflux in healthy adults.

Different sex-related influences of eating habits on the prevalence of reflux esophagitis in Japanese.

BACKGROUND AND AIM: Many types of food have been shown to affect lower esophageal sphincter pressure and esophageal motor function, and thus, the prevalence of reflux esophagitis. The present study was performed to clarify the different eating habits that predominantly affect the prevalence of reflux esophagitis in Japanese. METHODS: The study included 2303 individuals (males: 1599, females: 704, mean age: 49.9 years) who underwent upper gastrointestinal endoscopy for gastric cancer screening. The daily dietary contents of the patients were analyzed using a self-administered questionnaire. RESULTS: A total of 201 patients had endoscopically-proven reflux esophagitis, and the percentage of males with reflux esophagitis was significantly higher than their female counterparts (11.3% vs 2.8%). The body mass indexes of individuals with reflux esophagitis were significantly higher than those without, both for males and females. Total energy intake was the most important risk factor for the occurrence of reflux esophagitis in males, but the food content was not a significant risk factor. Dietary habit did not affect the prevalence of reflux esophagitis in the female patients. The age and height of females with reflux esophagitis significantly exceeded those of females without reflux esophagitis, and were independent risk factors for the occurrence of reflux esophagitis only in the female patients. CONCLUSION: There is a sex-related difference in the influence of eating habits on the prevalence of reflux esophagitis in Japanese.

Usefulness of catheterless radiotelemetry pH monitoring system to examine the relationship between duodenal acidity and upper gastrointestinal symptoms.

BACKGROUND AND AIM: To clarify the usefulness of a newly designed method for measuring intraduodenal pH to examine the relationship between duodenal acidity and upper gastrointestinal symptoms during intragastric acid infusion. METHODS: The study subjects were six healthy volunteers. A Bravo pH capsule with thread fixed to the gastric wall was endoscopically introduced into the second portion of the duodenum, and intraduodenal acidity was measured during intragastric infusion of 300 mL of 0.1 mol/L hydrochloric acid or pure water through an elemental diet tube. The severity of several upper gastrointestinal symptoms were assessed by using a 10-cm visual analogue scale every 2 min for up to 30 min, and the area under the severity scale-time curve (cm×min.) were calculated. RESULTS: The percentage time during 30 min when the intraduodenal pH was <4.0 and was significantly greater than during water infusion (61.4±6.1% vs 24.8±6.5%). Several upper gastrointestinal symptoms were observed during acid infusion (acid vs water epigastric heaviness, 29.1±12.0 vs 2.7±1.4; dull epigastric pain, 8.8±4.9 vs 0.7±0.7 cm×min/30 min). Intraduodenal pH below 4.0 was correlated with the severity of dull pain in the stomach (R(2)=0.342, P=0.044). CONCLUSION: The newly designed intraduodenal pH monitoring by using catheterless radiotelemetry system is useful to examine the relationship between duodenal acidity and upper gastrointestinal symptoms.

Effects of mosapride on esophageal functions and gastroesophageal reflux.

BACKGROUND AND AIM: A substantial number of patients with gastroesophageal reflux disease show symptomatic resistance to high-dose proton pump inhibitors. In those cases, prokinetics are possible candidates for treatment. The aim of the present study was to determine whether mosapride, a prokinetic agent, stimulates esophageal functions, and prevents acidic and non-acidic gastroesophageal reflux. METHODS: Normal volunteers (nine and 13 for two experiments, respectively) were enrolled. Salivary secretion, esophageal peristaltic contractions, and resting lower esophageal sphincter pressure with and without mosapride administration were recorded using a cross-over protocol. Post-prandial acidic and non-acidic reflux levels were also recorded. RESULTS: Mosapride at a standard dose of 15 mg/day did not stimulate salivary secretion or any esophageal motor functions. It also failed to prevent acidic and non-acidic post-prandial gastroesophageal reflux. CONCLUSIONS: Mosapride at 15 mg/day, a standard dose in Japan, did not change the esophageal motility and salivary secretion in healthy volunteers. Future study on a larger number of individuals with higher dose of mosapride is worthwhile.

Effects of anti-hypertensive drugs on esophageal body contraction.

AIM: To clarify the effects of anti-hypertensive drugs on esophageal contraction and determine their possible relationship with gastro-esophageal reflux disease. METHODS: Thirteen healthy male volunteers were enrolled. Esophageal body peristaltic contractions and lower esophageal sphincter (LES) pressure were measured using high resolution manometry. All subjects were randomly examined on four separate occasions following administrations of nifedipine, losartan, and atenolol, as well as without any drug administration. RESULTS: Peristaltic contractions by the esophageal body were separated into three segments by two troughs. The peak peristaltic pressures in the mid and lower segments of the esophageal body under atenolol administration were significantly higher than those without medication in a supine position. On the other hand, peristaltic pressures under nifedipine administration were lower than those observed without drug administration. Losartan did not change esophageal body peristalsis. Atenolol elevated LES pressure and slowed peristaltic wave transition, while the effects of nifedipine were the opposite. CONCLUSION: Among the anti-hypertensive drugs tested, atenolol enhanced esophageal motor activity, which was in contrast to nifedipine.

Is autofluorescence imaging endoscopy useful for determining the depth of invasion in gastric cancer?

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Newly developed autofluorescence (AF) imaging (AFI) endoscopy can detect AF emitted by the gastrointestinal wall and may reliably detect tumors or inflammation that block AF. However, the efficacy of AFI endoscopy has not been evaluated for diagnosing the depth of tumor invasion in gastric cancer. METHODS: AF endoscopic images were split into three bands (R, G and B) and expressed as grayscale values. AF indices, defined as the ratio of the G band image grayscale value to that of the R band, were calculated preoperatively. Correlations of AF indices with invasion depth and tumor thickness were assessed. AF indices were calculated preoperatively for 72 gastric cancer lesions without ulceration in 67 patients. The invasion grade of the lesions was classified histologically into 5 groups: M, SM, MP, SS and SE. RESULTS: The mean tumor AF indices for each depth stage were 0.99, 0.77, 0.75, 0.74 and 0.61, respectively. A statistically significant difference was found between group M and the other groups. CONCLUSION: AFI endoscopy may reliably determine the depth of gastric cancer tumor invasion, although an expanded study comprised of larger numbers of subjects and different types of cancers may be required to clearly demonstrate its validity.

[Development and verification of the Izumo Scale, new questionnaire for quality of life assessment of patients with gastrointestinal symptoms].

The Izumo Scale is a new questionnaire for the assessment of quality of life of the patients with gastrointestinal symptoms comprehensively. The validity and reliability of the scale were verified in 170 patients with gastrointestinal symptoms. Spearman's rank correlation coefficient between the Izumo Scale and visual analog scale (VAS) showed a positive correlation of 0.581-0.753. Internal consistency was also good with Cronbach's coefficient alpha of 0.616-0.805. The reproducibility was good with an intra-class correlation coefficient of 0.755-0.887. The results suggest that the Izumo Scale may be useful as a disease-specific quality of life assessment scale for patients with gastrointestinal symptoms.

Half-solidification of nutrient does not decrease gastro-esophageal reflux events in patients fed via percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy.

BACKGROUND & AIMS: Percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG) tube feeding is widely used for patients with swallowing dysfunction, and aspiration pneumonitis induced by reflux of gastric contents is one of the most frequent and life-threatening events in such patients. We performed this study to clarify the effect of half-solidification of nutrient on gastro-esophageal reflux (GER) of acidic and non-acidic gastric contents in patients with PEG. METHODS: The subjects were 14 elderly patients undergoing PEG feeding (female: 11, mean age 83.1 y). Twenty-four hour esophageal multichannel intraluminal impedance (MII) and pH (MII-pH) monitoring were performed during and after feeding with half-solid and liquid nutrient, respectively. The numbers of GER events during 4h after the start of feeding were compared. RESULTS: There was no significant difference in the total number of GER events between half-solid nutrient feeding and liquid nutrient feeding (5.6+/-1.5 vs. 6.6+/-1.5). The number of acid reflux events after half-solid nutrient feeding tended to be higher than that after liquid nutrient feeding (1.9+/-1.1 vs. 1.4+/-0.8). CONCLUSION: Half-solidification of nutrition does not appear to be effective for preventing GER caused by liquid PEG feeding.

Esophageal epithelial surface in patients with gastroesophageal reflux disease: an electron microscopic study.

AIM: To investigate the intercellular spaces between the most superficially located esophageal epithelial cells in patients with gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). METHODS: Eighteen patients with erosive esophagitis, 10 patients with non-erosive reflux disease (NERD), and 18 normal asymptomatic volunteers were enrolled. Biopsy specimens were obtained from the lower esophageal mucosa without ulcer or erosion. Scanning electron microscopy was employed to investigate the tightness of the superficial cellular attachment. RESULTS: The intercellular space between the most superficially located epithelial cells in patients with erosive esophagitis or NERD was not different from that in asymptomatic healthy individuals. CONCLUSION: Widened luminal intercellular spaces of esophageal superficial epithelium are not responsible for the induction of reflux symptoms in patients with GERD.

Does magnifying endoscopy improve the diagnosis of erosive esophagitis?

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Low-grade erosive esophagitis (i.e. Los Angeles grade A) is the most predominant type of esophagitis in Japan. It is unclear whether all the mucosal breaks detected by conventional endoscopy are indicative of esophageal mucosal erosion. Hospital-based, cross-sectional, cross-over, observational study was assigned to investigate the value of magnifying endoscopy for diagnosis of erosive esophagitis. METHODS: From August to December 2006, 178 consecutive patients with upper gastrointestinal symptoms were enrolled at three university hospitals and one national medical center in western Japan. Before endoscopy, all participants were requested to answer questionnaires concerning their symptoms. Experienced endoscopists performed an endoscopic diagnosis of each patient first with a conventional standard view and then with a magnifying view. Endoscopic diagnostic concordance between conventional and magnifying endoscopic view for erosive esophagitis was calculated. Relationship between a variety of symptoms and erosive esophagitis was also evaluated. RESULTS: Erosive esophagitis was identified using conventional and magnifying endoscopy in 14.6% and 17.4% of patients, respectively. Eleven false-negative and six false-positive diagnoses using conventional endoscopy occurred among the 178 enrolled patients. The weighted kappa value of diagnostic concordance for erosive esophagitis between the two endoscopic views was 0.76. The prevalence of erosive esophagitis in patients with reflux-, dysmotility-, and ulcer-like symptoms was 20.7%, 24.1%, and 15.2%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Magnifying endoscopy did not significantly improve the diagnostic sensitivity of erosive esophagitis over non-magnifying, conventional endoscopy. Erosive esophagitis was frequently identified in patients that did not have reflux symptoms.

[Study on the recognition of upper abdominal symptoms by Japanese adults ].

Four hundred and sixty-three cases, who visited medical center for annual check-up, were enrolled in this study. All subjects were required to answer three symptoms in the ten upper abdominal symptoms and the frequency of these symptoms by which they might visit hospital to take medical care. Upper abdominal pain, nausea and chest pain were best three symptoms, which might cause hospital visit and only a few subjects thought that they make a hospital visit by heartburn, acid regurgitation and early satiety. More than 30% of subjects think that they might visit medical center for medical care when these symptoms occur over three times per week. In contrast, upper abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, heartburn and early satiety were frequently observed in 100 patients, who visited medical center to take medical care. In addition, about half of patients visited medical center when these symptoms occurred every day.

Five-year follow-up study of patients with reflux symptoms and reflux esophagitis in annual medical check-up field.

AIM: To clarify changes in the prevalence of reflux symptoms and reflux esophagitis over a period of 5 years. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: Five hundred thirty-nine study subjects (male: 408, mean age 47.3 years) were assessed using a reflux symptom questionnaire and endoscopic examinations conducted twice, 5 years apart. RESULTS: At enrollment, 88 patients had reflux symptoms and 44 had reflux esophagitis (RE). After 5 years, 58 and 53 patients were diagnosed as having reflux symptoms and RE, respectively. Only 26% of the patients with reflux symptoms at enrollment had the symptoms after 5 years. The presence of reflux symptoms and an increase of BMI were significant risk factors for the presence of reflux symptoms after 5 years. CONCLUSION: Reflux symptoms frequently disappear after 5 years. It is difficult to identify individuals who will still have symptoms after 5 years on the basis of clinical characteristics.

Study of arteriosclerosis in patients with hiatal hernia and reflux esophagitis.

BACKGROUND AND AIM: It has been reported that the prevalence of hiatal hernia (HH) and reflux esophagitis (RE) increases with age, as does the degree of arteriosclerosis. However, it has not been investigated whether or not arteriosclerosis is correlated with the presence of HH and RE. Therefore, we prospectively investigated the degree of arteriosclerosis in patients with HH and RE compared with subjects without HH and RE. METHODS: We prospectively enrolled 1683 people who visited Shimane Environment and Health Public Corporation for annual medical check-ups. All subjects were investigated by upper gastrointestinal endoscopy for the possible presence of HH and RE. Factors used for assessing cardiovascular risk were sex, age, body mass index (BMI), smoking and drinking habits, serum total cholesterol, triglyceride (TG), and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDLC). Arteriosclerosis was investigated by measuring systolic blood pressure, heart-carotid pulse wave velocity (HCPWV), bilateral ankle brachial index (ABI) and heart-ankle PWV (HAPWV). RESULTS: The number of patients with HH and RE was 624 (37.1%) and 143 (8.5%), respectively. The HDLC level of the patients with HH was significantly lower, and the levels of BMI, TG and arteriosclerotic parameters were higher than those of the subjects without HH after adjusting for confounding factors (sex, age and smoking and drinking habits). Cardiovascular and arteriosclerosis parameters except for TG did not differ between the subjects with and without RE. CONCLUSION: Levels of arteriosclerosis parameters in patients with HH were higher than in those without HH. However, the association between arteriosclerosis and presence of RE was not clarified.

A Japanese case of eosinophilic esophagitis.

Eosinophilic esophagitis (EE) is a rarely diagnosed condition involving eosinophilic infiltration of the esophageal mucosa. Here we present a case of EE in a 69-year-old Japanese man, who presented with abdominal pain, appetite loss, and a history of bronchial asthma. Laboratory findings included peripheral eosinophilia and an increased serum immunoglobulin E level. Computed tomography showed diffuse severe thickening of the esophageal wall, and a barium esophagogram revealed a small caliber of the middle and lower portion of the esophagus, without normal peristaltic contractions. Endoscopy of the esophagus showed a pale mucosa, with adherent whitish exudates resembling fungal infection, and prominent ring-like contractions. Histologic examination of a biopsy specimen revealed marked eosinophil infiltration into the esophageal mucosa. Endoscopic ultrasonography (EUS) demonstrated marked circumferential thickening of the esophageal submucosal layer, and an esophageal manometry study showed a high percentage of ineffective esophageal peristalsis and high-amplitude esophageal body contractions. EUS findings showed no change even after oral corticosteroid therapy, although the histological findings were improved. This is thought to be the first documented Japanese case of EE. EE should be considered in the differential diagnosis in cases of esophageal motility disturbance, even if the patients do not complain of dysphagia.