Categorized: Abstracts & Presentations, Gastroenterology
Barrett’s Esophagus is Not Rare in Asian Patients Who Have Esophageal Biopsies Taken in the United States
National differences in the prevalence of Barrett’s esophagus (BE) have been described, but it is not clear whether these differences are real (due to differences in genetic or environmental factors) or spurious (due to national differences in endoscopic landmarks used by physicians to identify BE, in endoscopic biopsy protocols, or in histological criteria for BE).
Although BE is widely regarded as rare in Asia, there is wide variation in the reported prevalence of BE in Asian countries (range 0.06% to 19.9%) for reasons that remain unclear.
We hypothesized that using a U.S. national database containing patients of different ethnicities who had endoscopy performed in the United States — with esophageal biopsies evaluated by a group of gastrointestinal pathologists in the United States — would minimize confounding due to national differences in physician factors relating to the diagnosis of BE.
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