A study of morphological spectrum of upper gastrointestinal tract lesions by endoscopy and correlation between endoscopic and histopathological findings

Introduction: With the increasing use of endoscopy, gastrointestinal abnormalities are encountered more often. However it has been realized that endoscopic appearances are not pathognomonic and they need histological confirmation. The objective of this study was to determine the morphological spectrum of upper gastrointestinal tract lesions on histopathology and the correlation between endoscopic and histopathological diagnosis. Materials and Methods: A histopathological study was carried out in 100 endoscopic biopsy specimens of upper gastrointestinal tract lesions. Conventional haematoxylin and eosin staining was done in all the 100 cases. Warthin-Starry stain was done in gastric biopsies, where there was suspicion of Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) gastritis on histopathology. Results: In our study, out of 100 cases, stomach was the most common site, comprising of 46% of all the cases followed by esophagus (30%) and duodenum (24%).On histology, squamous cell carcinoma of esophagus was found to be the most common lesion with an incidence of 22%, followed by celiac disease (14%), H. pylori gastritis (9%) and fundic gland polyp (8%). Our data suggested that in case of visible growth on endoscopy, the biopsy correlated well with histopathology. However, histopathology significantly improved the diagnosis of inflammatory lesions. Conclusion: Endoscopic procedure in adjunction with histological interpretation remains the mainstay of diagnostic modality in cases of upper gastrointestinal tract lesions.