Glasgow-Blatchford score combined with nasogastric aspirate as a new diagnostic algorithm for patients with nonvariceal upper gastrointestinal bleeding.

Objectives: The Glasgow-Blatchford score (GBS) is a widely used risk assessment tool for patients with upper gastrointestinal bleeding. However, it only identifies a relatively low proportion of patients at low risk for adverse events and poor outcomes. We developed a simple diagnostic algorithm combining the GBS and nasogastric aspirate and evaluated its diagnostic performance. Methods: A total of 115 consecutive patients with suspected nonvariceal upper gastrointestinal bleeding who underwent nasogastric tube placement and upper endoscopy at our emergency department were prospectively evaluated. We compared the diagnostic accuracy of the GBS and our algorithm for predicting high-risk endoscopic lesions (HRELs) using receiver operating characteristic curve analysis. Results: Thirty-five patients had HRELs. Compared with the GBS, our algorithm showed superior performance with respect to the prediction of HRELs (area under the curve, 0.639 and 0.854, respectively; p < 0.001). With set optimal threshold values, the algorithm identified a significantly higher proportion of patients who did not have HRELs than the GBS (23.5% vs. 2.6%, p < 0.001). Conclusions: The novel algorithm has improved the diagnostic performance of the GBS and predicted more patients who did not have HRELs than the GBS alone. After further validation, it may be a useful tool for making clinical management decisions for patients with nonvariceal upper gastrointestinal bleeding.

Esophageal xanthoma with nearby coexistent squamous cell carcinoma observed using magnifying endoscopy with narrow-band imaging.

We report the case of a 63-year-old man who underwent annual surveillance esophagogastroduodenoscopy, during which a small squamous cell carcinoma and a tiny yellowish granular lesion were found in the middle esophagus, slightly apart from each other. Magnifying endoscopy with narrow-band imaging of the yellowish granular lesion showed yellowish spots and blots scattered within an approximately 2-mm area. The larger spots appeared nodular and were overlaid with tortuous microvessels. Subsequently, both the lesions were excised en masse via endoscopic submucosal dissection, and the yellowish lesion was determined to be xanthoma. Histologically, an aggregated nest of foam cells surrounded by intrapapillary capillary vessels filled the intraepithelial papillae; the foam cells also extended inferiorly, below the rete ridges, and were sparsely distributed through the lamina propria mucosae. To our knowledge, the latter finding is the first to be described in literature, which leads us to postulate that the number of foam cells in the lamina propria mucosae may affect how thick and yellow a xanthoma appears on endoscopy. We believe that this case that presents a highly detailed comparison between endoscopic and histologic findings improves our understanding of the endoscopic appearance of esophageal xanthomas and may facilitate a precise diagnosis of this rare disease.