Declining necropsy rate.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to G G Menon.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
The development of gastric dysplasia and neoplasia in patients with pernicious anaemia has been evaluated in a prospective clinical and endoscopic follow up study. After initial screening of 80 patients between 1978 and 1980, one patient underwent total gastrectomy for a gastric malignancy and 12 were kept under surveillance and underwent endoscopy at a mean interval of 14 months. In the remaining 67 patients further investigation was attempted six to seven years after the initial investigation. The continuous follow up study identified carcinoids in one patient and an adenoma with severe dysplasia in a further patient. The grade and site of mucosal dysplasia differed from one investigation to the next, but no overall progression was observed. Of the 79 patients, eight had died by the time of the reinvestigation, two of unknown cause and six of causes unrelated to pernicious anaemia. In 38 of the remaining 71 patients, clinical data only were available, with no evidence of new gastric malignancy. In 27 patients it was possible to perform an upper gastrointestinal endoscopy, when no change in the degree of dysplasia was detected. In six patients no follow up information was obtainable. In conclusion, patients with pernicious anaemia should be investigated by upper gastrointestinal endoscopy soon after diagnosis. Polyps should be removed wherever possible. In the presence of severe mucosal dysplasia or polyps that are not removed, frequent reinvestigation should be performed, provided the patient is eligible for gastric surgery. In the remaining patients, follow up endoscopies at about five year intervals would seem sufficient.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Intragastric bacterial colonization is well known in pernicious anaemia (PA), but its consequences have rarely been investigated. We have studied the clinical history, blood samples, and endoscopic biopsies from the stomach and duodenum of 80 patients with PA. In a random subgroup of 22 patients gastric juice was collected for aerobic culture and for estimation of nitrate, nitrate-reducing bacteria, nitrite, and N-nitrosamines; duodenal juice was studied in parallel in eight of these subjects. Gastric and duodenal juice had high bacterial counts; faecal organisms were found in 14 patients. The mean count of nitrate-reducing bacteria was significantly higher than in a control group of patients with peptic ulcer disease (p less than 0.001), as was the nitrite concentration (p less than 0.001). Thirty-three of the 80 patients had gastric dysplasias; 1 early gastric carcinoma was also found. Duodenitis was present in 39 out of 80 cases, in 6 associated with partial villous atrophy. A history of malabsorption and/or chronic intermittent diarrhoea was obtained significantly more often from patients with duodenitis. Four patients developed acute gastroenteritis shortly before or during the time of the study, two having a salmonella infection. Bacterial overgrowth in PA may be facilitated by altered immunological conditions, since low serum levels of IgA and IgG were found in this patient group.
We have studied 80 patients with pernicious anaemia. Upper gastrointestinal endoscopy (with biopsy and cytology) showed no lesion other than atrophic gastritis in 34 patients. Thirty three patients, however, had varying degrees of gastric mucosal dysplasia, which was detected more frequently by histology than by cytology. The endoscopic appearance of the mucosa was abnormal in four of the six patients with moderate dysplasia, and in all three patients with severe dysplasia. One patient was found to have a small carcinoma in the gastric antrum, and underwent total gastrectomy; 18 patients had polyps (often multiple); four of these were treated by endoscopic polypectomy. One of the patients with polyps had multiple carcinoid tumours, and an asymptomatic parathyroid adenoma. Seventeen of the patients also underwent barium meal examination; abnormalities were revealed in only three of the seven patients with lesions visible at endoscopy. Our results justify further endoscopic studies in patients with pernicious anaemia, and sequential examinations to establish the natural history of gastric dysplasia.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.