GI tract Flashcards
Congenital abnormalities of the GIT include…
oesophagus, hernias, ectopia, small bowel
Atresia, commonly near tracheal bifurcation, sometimes with fistula to bronchi. Stenosis can also occur.
Diaphragmatic hernia, omphalocele and gastroschisis.
Ectopic gastric tissue most commonly occurs in the oesophagus. Ectopic pancreatic tissue occurs more rarely.
Pyloric stenosis.
Meckel’s diverticulum.
The rule of 2s for Meckel’s diverticulum.
2% of population, within 2 ft of ileocaecal valve, 2” long, twice as common in males, and if symptomatic, are symptomatic by age 2. Only 4% (2 squared) are ever symptomatic.
Cause of Meckel’s diverticulum
Failed involution of the vitelline duct.
Varieties of Meckel’s diverticulum
Normal, or with ectopic pancreatic or gastric tissue, the latter of which can cause ulceration.
All forms are a true diverticulum, involving all 3 layers of the bowel wall.
Frequency of congenital hypertrophic pyloric stenosis.
1 in 300-900 live births. 3-5 times more common in males.
Factors associated with increased risk of pyloric stenosis at birth
Erythromycin exposure in first two weeks of life
Turner’s syndrome, trisomy 18.
Presentation of congenital hypertrophic pyloric stenosis
3-6 weeks, projectile non-bilious vomiting and demands for refeeding.
Congenital hypertrophic pyloric stenosis on examination
Firm ovoid 1-2 cm abdo mass.
What can increase narrowing of congenital hypertrophic pyloric stenosis?
Edema and inflammatory changes.
What causes acquired pyloric stenosis?
Antral gastritis, peptic ulcers in pyloric region, carcinoma of stomach or pancreas.
Epidemiology of Hirschsprung disease.
1/5000 live births, 10% occur in Down’s syndrome and 5% with other neurological deficits.
What is Hirschsprung disease?
Problem with neural crest migration from caecum to rectum, or with death of ganglion cells; distal intestinal segment has aganglionosis.
Lacks peristalsis; functional obstruction occurs; congenital aganglionic megacolon.
Mechanism causing loss of neural crest migration in Hirschsprung disease.
Not fully understood. Most familial cases involve receptor tyrosine kinase RET. Penetrance is incomplete, and other genes are also thought to contribute.
Clinical features of Hirschsprung disease.
Failure to pass meconium.
Obstruction and constipation; occasional passage of stool may occur if only a few cm are involved.
Threats to life of Hirschsprung disease.
Enterocolites
Fluid and electrolyte imbalances
Perforation
Peritonitis.
Causes of acquired megacolon disease
Chagas’ disease, obstruction due to neoplasm or inflammatory stricture, UC causing toxic megacolon, visceral myopathy or functional psychosomatic disorders.
What are the three forms of oesophageal dysmotility?
Nutcracker oesophagus, diffuse oesophageal spasm, lower oesophageal sphincter dysfunction.
What is nutcracker oesophagus?
High amplitude contractions of the distal oesophagus due to loss of normal coordination between muscle layers.
Main effect of oesophageal dysmotility.
Formation of small diverticulae.
What types of oesophageal obstruction are there?
Functional and mechanical
Common causes of mechanical oesophageal dysfunction.
Strictures or cancer.
How does mechanical oesophageal obstruction classically present?
With progressive dysphagia, starting with solids and moving to liquids.
Common cause of benign oesophageal stenosis
GORD, irradiation or caustic injury.
What is the triad associated characterising achalasia?
Incomplete lower oesophageal sphincter (LES) relaxation,
increased LES tone and aperistalsis of the oesophagus.
Symptoms of achalasia.
Dysphagia, difficulty belching, chest pain.
Cause of primary achalasia.
Distal oesophageal inhibitory neuronal degeneration (increases tone).
Secondary causes of achalasia (1 true, 5 achalasia-like)
Chagas disease (trypanosoma cruzi infection).
Achalasia-like disease can occur in
DM autonomic neuropathy,
infiltrative diseases (malig., amyloidosis,etc),
lesions of dorsal nuclei (polio, surgery),
with Down syndrome,
in Allgrove syndrome.
Treatments for achalasia
Laparoscopic myotomy, pneumatic balloon dilatation, botox.
Types of oesophageal laceration.
Mallory-Weiss tears, Boerhaave syndrome
Which type of oesophageal tear is transmural, and involve rupture of the distal oesophagus?
Boerhaave syndrome.
Inflammation of the oesophagus can be caused by what?
Alcohol, corrosive acids or alkalis, very hot fluids, heavy smoking. Some pills.
Symptoms of oesophagitis.
Odynophagia, haemorrhage, stricture or perforation.
How do you confirm a diagnosis of Hirschsprungs disease?
Using intraoperative frozen section analysis of presence of ganglion cells at the anastomotic margin.
Iatrogenic causes of oesophagitis.
Cytotoxic chemotherapy, radiation therapy, graft vs host disease.
Causes of oesophageal infections.
Usually in immunosuppressed. HSV (most common), CMV or candidiasis.
Morphology of oesophagitis.
Dense neutrophilic infiltrate, or necrosis.
Morphology of eosophageal irradiation.
Intimal proliferation and luminal narrowing of blood vessels.
Advanced candidiasis morphology
Adherent grey-white pseudomembrane across oesophageal mucosa.
Morphology of HSV oesophagitis.
Punched out ulcers.
Morphology of graft-vs-host disease in oesophagus.
Basal epithelial cell apoptosis, mucosal atrophy and submucosal fibrosis without acut inflammatory infiltrates.
Most frequent cause of oesophagitis.
GORD
Cause of GORD.
Transient lower oesophageal spincter relaxation, mediated via vagal pathways.
Triggers of LES relaxation causing GORD.
Gastric distension, moild pharyngeal stimulation, abrupt increase in intra-abdominal pressure.
Conditions that contribute to GORD.
Alcohol and tobacco use, obesity, CNS depressants, pregnancy, and hiatus hernia.
Morphology of GORD
Simple hyperaemia. In more significant disease there may be eosinophilia and basal zone hyperplasia.
What is eosinophilic oesophagitis?
A condition like GORD in children, but with food impaction and dysphagia in adults, which can occur in atopic individuals.
What proportion of patients with cirrhosis get varices? And variceal bleeding?
Half have varices, and about a quarter get variceal bleeding.
What is Barrett’s oesphagus?
A complication of chronic GORD characterised by intestinal metaplasia within the eosophageal squamous mucosa.
How often is Barrett’s oesophagus thought to occur in patients with symptomatic GORD?
10%. Presents most commonly in white males between 40 and 60.
What is the greatest concern in Barrett’s oesophagus?
An increased risk of oesophageal carcinoma. It shares mutations with this, and is considered a precursor lesion to cancer. Most people with Barrett’s oesophagus do not develop oesophageal adenocarcinoma, however.
Morphology of Barrett oesophagus.
Tongues of velvety red metaplastic mucosa extend up from the gastroesophageal junction. Long segment is greater than 3 cm.
Morphology in diagnosis of Barrett oesophagus.
Can only be identified by endoscopy and biopsy. Endoscopic evidence of metaplastic columnar mucosa above gastro-oesophageal junction. Intestinal-type metaplasia is seen as replacem ent of the squamous eosophageal epithelium with goblet cells.
What are the 2 main types of eosophageal cancers?
Adenocarcinoma (esp in west) and squamous cell carcinoma (more common worldwide).
Risk factors for oesophageal adenocarcinoma.
Barrett oesophagus. Tobacco. Radiation.
Negative risk factors include diet high in veg and fruit, and some types of H. pylori (due to gastric atrophy).
Mutations in oesophageal adenocarcinoma.
Early stages: TP53, down regulation of CDKN2A (p16/INK4a).
Late stages: amplification of EGFR, ERBB2, MET, cyclins D and E.
Morphology of eosophageal adenocarcinoma.
Distal 1/3 of oesophagus. Initially flat, may form large masses of 5cm diameter, or ulcerate and invade deeply. Often produce mucin and form glands.
Key risk factors for eosophageal squamous cell carcinomas.
Alcohol and tobacco. Nutritional deficiencies. Mutagenic compounds in food.
Molecular pathogenesis of squamous cell oesophageal carcinoma.
Amplification of SOX2. Overexpression of cyclin D1. LOF of TP53, E-cadherin and NOTCH1.
Morphology of squamous cell carcinoma.
Half occur in middle 1/3 of the oesophagus, starting with squamous dysplasia. Can be ulcerative or diffusely infiltrative.
Which lymph nodes do squamous cell oesophageal carcinomas invade to?
In upper third, cervical lymph nodes. In middle third, mediastinal, paratracheal and tracheobronchial lymph nodes. In lower third, gastric and coeliac lymph nodes.
Parts of the stomach
Cardia, fundus, body and antrum
What is the difference between gastropathy and gastritis?
Both are mucosal inflammatory processes, but in gastritis neutrophils are present, and in gastropathy they are rare or absent entirely.
Key agents causing gastropathy
NSAIDs, alcohol, bile and stress induced injury.
Acute mucosal erosion or haemorrhage.
Hypertrophic gastropathies.
Normal damaging factors to the gastric mucosa.
Gastric acidity, peptic enzymes.
Damaging factors causing injury to gastric mucosa.
H. pylori infection, NSAIDs, Tobacco, alcohol, gastric hyperacidity, duodenal-gastric reflux.
Normal protective factors to the gastric mucosa.
Surface mucus secretion, bicarbonate secretion into mucus, mucosal blood flow epithelial barrier function, epithelial regenerative capacity, elaboration of the prostaglandins.
Things damaging normal protective factors to the gastric mucosa.
Ischaemia, shock, NSAIDs.
Some cancer chemotherapies.
How do NSAIDs damage the gastric mucosa?
By preventing prostaglandin synthesis, which stimulates nearly all the defence mechanisms. Although COX-1 plays larger role than COX-2, the latter does have some role.
What are the ulcers caused by stress related mucosal injury (physiological stress) called?
In proximal duodenum, associated with sever burns or trauma, they are called Curling ulcers.
Gastric, duodenal and oesophageal ulcers associated with patients with intracranial disease are called Cushing ulcers.
What is the risk with Cushing ulcers?
Perforation.
What is the pathogenesis of Cushing ulcers?
Systemic hypotension or stress induced splanchnic vasoconstriction cause local ischaemia.
Upregulation of inducible NO synthase and release of vasoconstrictor endothelin 1 also contribute to ischaemia.
What is the pathogenesis of Curling ulcers?
Direct stimulation of vagal nuclei, and possibly systemic acidosis.
What is a Dieulafoy lesion?
An extra large submucosal artery due to failure to branch properly, which with erosion of the epithelium, can bleed copiously.
What is gastric antral vascular ectasia?
Erythematous stripes caused by ectatic mucosal vessels. Usually idiopathic.
Endoscopic appearance of gastric antral vascular ectasia.
Longitudinal strips of edematous erythematous mucosa alternating with pale strips of less injured mucosa.
What is the most common cause of chronic gastritis?
H. pylori infection.
What is the most common cause of diffuse atrophic gastritis?
Autoimmune gastritis.
How does H. pylori infection usually present?
Antral gastritis with normal or increased acid production.
Which pattern of H. pylori infection is associated with increased risk of gastric adenocarcinoma?
Multifocal atrophic gastritis.
Which H. pylori gene is particularly associated with gastric cancer risk?
CagA.
Morphology of H. pylori gastritis.
Neutrophils in lamina propria, and some in gastric pits. Superficial lamina propria contains plasma cells. Lymphoid aggregates are common.
Site of autoimmune gastritis.
Usually spares the anturm; is associated with hypergastrinaemia.
5 characteristics of autoimmune gastritis.
Abs to parietal cells and intrinsic. Reduced serum pepsinogen I conc. Endocrine cell hyperplasia. Vit B12 deficiency. Defective gastric acid secretion.
What is the inflammatory infiltrate in autoimmune gastritis?
Lymphocytes and macrophages.
Principle agents of damage in autoimmune gastritis.
CD4+ T cells directed against parietal cell components including H+,K+ ATPase.
Autoantibodies to parietal cell components and intrinsic factor are present 80% of patients.
Morphology of autoimmune gastritis.
Diffuse mucoase damage of oxyntic mucosa within the body and fundus.
Associations of autoimmune gastritis with other diseases.
Pernicious anemia, Hashimoto thyroiditis, T1DM, Addison’s and other autoimmune diseases.
Uncommon forms of gastritis
Eosinophilic gastritis, usually caused by an allergic reaction.
Lymphocytic gastritis usually affects women, and is associated with celiac disease.
Granulomatous gastritis, caused by Crohn disease, sarcoidosis and infections.
Complications of chronic gastritis.
PUD
Mucosal atrophy and intestinal metaplasia.
Dysplasia
Gastritis cystica.
Peptic ulcer disease associations
H pylori infections, NSAID use, cigarette smoking.
Site of gastritis caused by H pylori
Antrum.
What is a gastric lesion with a sharply punched out lesion likely to be?
A peptic ulcer
What is a gastric lesion with a heaped up margin likely to be?
A cancer.
Presenting features of peptic ulcers.
Epigastric burning or aching pain.
Iron deficiency anaemia, haemorrhage or perforation.
What is hypertrophic gastropathy?
A group of uncommon diseases characterised by giant cerebriform enlargement of the rugal folds due to epithelial hyperplasia without inflammation.
Name the rare hypertrophic gastropathies.
Menetrier disease (associated with TGF-a hypersecretion) Zollinger-Ellison syndrome (caused by gastrin secreting tumours in small intestine or pancreas)
Inflammatory and hyperplastic polyps. Cause and treatment
Caused by chronic inflammation; may regress with H pylori eradication. If larger than 1.5 cm, resect.
Fundic gland polyps: population affected
Familial adenomatous polyposis sufferers, especially those on PPIs. Does not involve inflammation.
Gastric adenomas: people affected.
Almost always on background of chronic gastritis with atrophy and intestinal metaplasia. Increased incidence in people with FAP.
Gastric adenocarcinoma: types
Intestinal type (bulky masses) and diffuse type (diffusely thickens wall, composed of signet ring cells)
Gastric adenocarcinoma: epidemiology.
Common in Japan, Chile, Costa Rica and Eastern Europe. Associated with poverty. Environmental factors are important. Generally falling in the West, except for those associated with GORD - cancers of the gastric cardia.
Key genetic changes in pathogenesis of gastric adenocarcinoma diffuse type.
Loss of E-cadherin.
Key genetic changes in pathogenesis of gastric adenocarcinoma intestinal type.
Increased signalling in Wnt pathway including loss of APC adn gain in B-catenins. FAP patients at risk.
Morphology of intestinal type gastric adenocarcinomas.
Exophytic mass or ulcerated tumour. Neoplastic cells contain apical mucin vacuoles
Morphology of diffuse type of gastric adenocarcinomas.
Composed of discohesive cells with large mucin vacuoles causing signet cell morphology.
Desmoplastic reaction may stiffen gastric wall. If there is a large area of infiltration, may cause linitis plastica.
Pathogenesis of MALT lymphoma
Chronic gastritis induces MALT lymphoma; H. pylori eradication usually is followed by durable remission.
Morphology of MALT lymphoma
Neoplastic lymphocytes infiltrate gastric glands to create diagnostic lymphoepithelial lesions. Express B cell markers CD19 and CD20.
Well differentiated neuroendocrine tumours - common sites
Most common is the intestine, followed by tracheobronchial tree and lungs.
Diseases associated with gastric well differentiated neuroendocrine tumours.
Endocrine cell hyperplasia, autoimmune chronic atrophic gastritis, MEN-1 and Zollinger-Ellison syndrome.
Gross morphology of well differentiated neuroendocrine tumours (carcinoid tumours)
Intramural or submucosal masses that ccreate small polypoid lesion. May involve mesentary. Yellow or tan in colour and are very firm.
Histological morphology of well differentiated neuroendocrine tumours (carcinoid tumours)
Composed of islands, trabeculae, strands, gland or sheets of uniform cells.
Positive for synaptophysin and chromogranin A (endogrine granule markers).
Characteristics of carcinoid syndrome associated with ileal carcinoid tumours.
Cutaneous flushing, sweating, bronchospasm, colicky abdo pain, diarrhoea, right sided cardiac valvular fibrosis.
Prognosis for foregut carcinoid tumours
Usually cured by resection, esp if associated with atrophic gastritis.
Prognosis for midgut carcinoid tumours.
Usually multiple and aggressive. Poor prognostic factors include deep local invasion, large size, necrosis and mitoses.
Prognosis for hindgut carcinoid tumours.
Almost always benign.
How common are GI stromal tumours?
Very rare, but the most common mesenchymal tumour of the abdomen.
Key mutations in GI stromal tumours?
Tyrosine kinase KIT gain of function.
Or
PDGF receptor alpha gain of function.
Mutations of the mitochondiral succinate dehydrogenase complex.
Causes of mechanical obstruction of the small intestine.
Hernias, intestinal adhesions, intussusception, volvulus, tumours, infarction, Crohn disease.
Most common type of hernia to cause intestinal obstruction.
Inguinal hernias.
Pathogenesis of entrapment of intestine in hernia.
Pressure at neck causes impaired venous drainage of entrapped viscus. Stasis and edema in crease bulk of herniated loop, inding to incarceration, strangulation and infarction.
Causes of bowel adhesions
Surgery, infection, endometriosis (e.g. causes of peritoneal inflammation).
Rarely, congenital.
Complications of adhesions
Internal herniations through the closed loops formed by adhesions, with sequelae including obstruction and strangulation.
Order of frequency of bowel likely to form volvulus.
Sigmoid colon, caecum, small bowel, stomach, or rarely, transverse colon.
What can you do for an idiopathic intussusception in infants and children?
A contrast enema, which is both diagnostic and therapeutic. Not if there is a mass!
What causes a transmural infarction of the intestine?
Acute arterial obstruction - severe atherosclerosis, aortic aneurysm, hypercoag states and etc.
Systemic vasculitides
Systemic vasculitides causing intestinal damage.
Polyarteritis nodosa
Henoch-Schonlein purpura
Granulomatosis with polyangiitis.
What are the stages of ischaemic injury to the intestine?
Hypoxic injury - limited damage.
Reperfusion injury - severe damage. Mechanisms unknown, but include leakage of gut bacterial products.
Watershed zones in blood supply to the intestines.
Splenic flexure (superior and inferior mesenteric) Rectum (inferior mesenteric, pudendal and iliac)
Gross appearance of mucosal or mural infarction of the bowel.
Patchy infarction, haemorrhagic and possibly ulcerated.
Bowel wall thickened by edema.
Gross appearance of transmural infarction of the bowel
Sharply defined: infarcted bowel is congested and dusky. Later, blood tinged mucus or frank blood in lumen.
Wall becomes edematous.
Coagulative necrosis of muscularis propria in 1-4 days.
Perforation may occure.
Microscopic appearance of ischaemic intestine.
Atrophy of surface epithelium.
Hyperproliferative crypts.
Neutrophils present hours after reperfusion.
Chronic may lead to fibrous scarring of lamina propria.
Bacterial superinfection may lead to pseudomembrane formation.
Ischaemic disease of the colon. Associations and precipitating factors.
Associations: cardiovascular disease.
Precipitating factors: therapeutic vasoconstrictors, cocaine, endothelial damage, CMV, E coli.
Presentation of acute colonic ischaemia
Sudden onset cramping, left lower abdo pain, desire to defecate, passage of blood.
In colonic ischaemia, when should you consider surgical intervention?
Peristaltic sounds diminish, guarding or rebound tenderness develop.
What might right sided colonic ischaemia herald?
More severe disease of the superior mesenteric artery; the small intestine may be involved.
What can chronic ischaemia of the bowel masquerade as?
Inflammatory bowel disease.