Stomach Flashcards
Thickened gastric folds are most commonly due to what? What type of characteristic fold thickening does this produce?
Nodular fold thickening is suggestive of what? Examples?
- Thickened gastric folds are most commonly due to inflammatory gastritis, which characteristically produces smooth fold thickening.
- Nodular fold thickening is suggestive of neoplasm, such as gastric lymphoma or submucosal carcinoma.
Causes of Thickened Gastric Folds
What are they?
Provide a brief discussion of each cause!
- Helicobacter pylori is a major cause of gastritis, gastric ulcers and duodenal ulcers.
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Zollinger-Ellison is gastrin over-production from a gastrinoma, which is a pancreatic islet cell tumor that has a 50% rate of malignancy.
- ZE features elevated gastrin level and a paradoxical increase in gastrin after secretin administration.
- 25% of patients with gastrinoma have multiple endocrine neoplasia MEN1.
- MEN-1 consists of parathyroid adenoma, pituitary adenoma, and pancreatic islet cell tumors.
- Eosinophilic gastritis is characterized by thickened folds in the stomach and small bowel in a patient with a history of allergy.
-
Menetrier disease is a protein-losing enteropathy that is often a diagnosis of exclusion. It usually affects the proximal stomach and is pathologically characterized by replacement of parietal cells by hyperplastic epithelial cells, leading to achlorhydria.
- Menetrier disease has a controversial association with gastric carcinoma.
-
Gastric Crohn disease is almost always associated with small bowel disease. Usually the distal half of the stomach is affected.
- The earliest pathologic change is the formation of aphthous ulcers.
- Other causes: Gastric varices (from portal hypertension), gastric lymphoma, and submucosal carcinoma are non-inflammatory causes of thickened gastric folds.
Hyperplastic Polyp (Inflammatory Polyp)
What is it? In what setting does it occur?
Malignant potential?
- A hyperplastic polyp, also known as an inflammatory polyp, is cystic dilation of a gastric gland that develops in response to chronic inflammation. Hyperplastic polyps are almost always benign, with very rare cases of malignant transformation having been reported.
What is fundic gland polyposis syndrome?
- Fundic gland polyposis syndrome is a variant of familial adenomatous polyposis syndrome that also involves the stomach. In the stomach, most polyps are hyperplastic, but elsewhere in the GI tract, the polyps are adenomatous.
Gastric Adenomatous Polyp
What is it?
Malignant potential?
Treatment?
- An adenomatous polyp is a neoplastic polyp with malignant potential. There is an elevated risk of malignant transformation to adenocarcinoma if >2 cm in size.
- Adenomatous polyps are usually treated with endoscopic biopsy and polypectomy.
Gastric Hamartomatous Polyp
What are they?
What are they associated with?
- Hamartomatous polyps are benign polyps usually associated with syndromes such as Peutz-Jeghers, juvenile polyposis, and Cronkhite-Canada syndromes.
Cronkhite-Canada Syndrome
What is it?
Etiology?
Malignant potential?
Affected population? Presentation?
- Cronkhite–Canada syndrome is a type of non-hereditary hamartomatous polyposis syndrome characterised by rash, alopecia, and watery diarrhea. Characterised by numerous hamartomatous polyps in the digestive tract, with predominant involvement of the stomach, large intestine and, to a lesser extent, small bowel. The exact aetiology is unknown and there is no recognized familial occurrence. Unlike other polyposis syndromes, it is not associated with a malignancy.
- Patients typically present with watery diarrhea and protein losing enteropathy and associated nail atrophy, brownish skin pigmentation, and alopecia
- Polyps are similar to those of juvenile polyposis except that the mucosa among CCS polyps is oedematous and inflammation of the lamina propria usually present.
- Mnemonic: Cranky bald old man brown skin, diarrhea and polyps!
What are the kinds of gastric polyps?
- Hyperplastic/Inflammatory
- Adenomatous
- Hamartomatous
Benign Gastric Masses
Gastric Lipoma
What is it?
Fluoroscopy distinction between a GIST?
What is diagnostic of a gastric lipoma?
- A lipoma is a benign, submucosal, mesenchymal neoplasm.
- At fluoroscopy, a gastric lipoma is indistinguishable from a GIST.
- Fatty attenuation on CT is diagnostic of a lipoma.
Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumor (GIST)
What is it?
Where in the GI tract do they occur?
Benign or malignant?
Malignancy of GIST in stomach v other places?
Imaging?
DDx for submucosal gastric mass?
- Gastrointestinal stromal tumor - GIST is the most common submucosal gastric tumor.
- The tumor arises from the interstitial cells of Cajal, which are pacemaker cells that drive peristalsis.
- GIST may occur anywhere in the gastrointestinal tract.
- GIST may be benign or malignant, with risk for malignancy determined by size and number of mitoses. Regardless of size and number of mitoses, gastric GIST is less likely to be malignant compared to similar-sized GISTs in the duodenum, jejunum/ileum, or rectum. gastric tumors <2 cm in size are essentially always benign. Larger tumors carry a risk of malignancy as high as 86% for a gastric GIST >10 cm with an elevated mitotic rate.
- Small gastric GISTs are usually asymptomatic, but may be a cause of melena.
- On imaging, a smooth endoluminal surface is characteristic due to its submucosal location. Larger tumors have a tendency to become exophytic, or less commonly to invade the lumen.
- The differential diagnosis of a submucosal gastric mass includes mesenchymal tumors (GIST, fibroma, lipoma, neurofibromas, etc.), carcinoid, and ectopic pancreatic rest.
DDx for submucosal gastric mass
- The differential diagnosis of a submucosal gastric mass includes
- mesenchymal tumors (GIST, fibroma, lipoma, neurofibromas, etc.)
- carcinoid
- ectopic pancreatic rest.
Ectopic Pancreatic Rest
- An ectopic pancreatic rest is a focus of heterotopic pancreas in the gastric submucosa.
- The ectopic pancreatic tissue is susceptible to pancreatic diseases, including pancreatitis and carcinoma. on imaging, the classic appearance is an umbilicated submucosal nodule, with the umbilication representing a focus of normal epithelium.
- The ulceration is not always seen, in which case the imaging is of a nonspecific submucosal gastric mass.
Gastric Cancer
Presentation?
Cause? Specific risk factors?
Possible pathways of spread?
What is a Krukenburg tumor?
- Gastric adenocarcinoma may present either as a mass or as a gastric ulcer.
- Gastric cancer is generally caused by chronic inflammation, with specific risk factors including:
- Ingestion of polycyclic hydrocarbons and nitrosamines (from processed meats).
- Atrophic gastritis.
- Pernicious anemia.
- Post-subtotal gastrectomy.
- Gastric carcinoma may spread locally from the mucosal surface to the serosa, in which case 90% of patients will have omental involvement from trans-serosal spread.
- Lymphatic spread is along lesser curvature -> gastrohepatic ligament and greater curvature.
- A krukenberg tumor is classically described as the metastatic spread of gastric carcinoma to the ovary however, the term has also been used to describe any mucinous metastasis to the ovary.
Malignant GIST
Compare to benign GIST
Ease in finding the site of origin?
- Malignant GIST tends to be larger than benign GIST, often reaching sizes of greater than 10 cm, with central necrosis.
- Although the tumor begins in the submucosa, it can be difficult to determine the site of origin of large tumors.