Upper GI Flashcards
Diagnosis of GORD
Made on symptoms alone
Response to acid suppression
Management of GORD
Weight loss Stop smoking Decrease ETOH, coffee, chocolate, spicy, fatty food Avoid late meals Elevate head of bed Above effective only 20-30%
PPI >H2 antagonist (80 vs 50% efficacy)
What’s barrett’s?
What causes it?
Classification
Intestinal metaplasia of the distal oesophageal mucosa (to columnar mucosa)
Begins at LOS and extends variable distances (can be circumferential or tongues)
Correlates with severity of reflux
Needs 10 years of reflux (often silent)
15% with reflux oesophagitis
Classification
Short vs long segment (<3cm vs >3cm)
Long segment = increased risk of malignancy
Rx Barrett’s - high grade dysplasia on endoscopy
PPI
Endoscopic ablation therapy
Much less mortality now
Rx Barrett’s - no dysplasia
PPI - limited data that it reduces chance of dysplasia
Surveillance endoscopy 6 months –> 3 years
Rx Barrett’s - low grade dysplasia
PPI
Repeat endoscopy 6 months
Rings down a oesophagus
Recurrent dysphagia
What is it?
Eosinophil oesophagitis
What is Eosinophil oesophagitis?
Chronic immune mediated inflammatory disease of the oesophagus
Presentation of eosinophil oesophagitis
Dysphagia, food impaction
Young males
Associated with asthma, atopy
Endoscopy - rings and furrows, tears on dilation
Histology: eosinophil infiltration (proximal and mid oesophagus; eosinophils can be seen in distal oesophagus in GORD)
Rx eosinophil oesophagitis
PPI (85% effective)
2nd line: topical steroids (fluticasone puffer or budesonide slurry)
Elimination diets work well in children (not really in adults - we think its more to do with the air you breathe in)
Oesophageal dilatation if strictures
Last line: oral steroids (budesonide) +/- azathioprine +/- dupilimumab (monoclonal Ab IL4 IL13)
Dupilimumab is recently approved for use
What’s achlalasia?
Incomplete LOS relaxation
Aperistalsis
Presentation of aclalsia
Dysphagia to solids and liquids
Regurgitation especially postural (night), saliva and old food (not acid)
weight loss
Chest discomfort/pain (may mimic heartburn)
aspiration
Investigation achlasia
Endoscopy
- Dilated oesophagus, tight LOS, food in oesophagus
- Done to exclude strictures
Barium swallow - birds beak
Manometry
- Most sensitive
- Incomplete LOS relaxation
- Aperistalsis
Rx achlasia
1) Nitrates or CCB
- Generally not effective as the doses that need to be used have large effects on BP
Definitive treatment
2) BOTOX reserved for old patients or too unwell for other definitive therapy
3) Per oral endoscopic myotomy (POEM) is 1st line
- high response, low mortality
4) Balloon dilatation of LOS - 2nd line
- Done in 15-20 minutes
- High response rate
- Low perforation rate
- Not as longstanding as POEM, often requires repetition
5) Laparoscopic hellers myotomy - 3rd line
- Still a role
- Complex operation
- High mortality
- Good response
What are varices?
Venous collaterals which form in the presence of portal HTN
Hepatic venous pressure gradient (HVPG) of >12mmHg required for formation
HVPG usually >18mmHg before bleed
Rx varices
Endoscopy every 6-12 months (usually at diagnosis of cirrhosis/portal HTN)
If no varices - repeat 12 months
If large varices - B blocker (propanolol, carvediolol)
- Need to reduce the resting pulse by 25% for it to be effective
If grade 2-3 varices - banding
No difference in mortality between B blocker and banding
Rx variceal haemorrhage
Non-aggressive resuscitation. Aim Hb >70.
1) Ceftriaxone, followed by norfloxacin (7 days)
- reduce mortality, rebleeding rate, infection
- bacteria goes straight from azygous vein to vascular supply/Rt heart
2) endoscopy + banding
- Within 12 hours
- Gastric varices: glue injection preferred
3) Terlipressin or octreotide
- Acute
- Usually used for 3-5 days
- CI IHD, vascular disease
4) Sengstaken-Blakemore or linton tube
- Temporary measure (24-48h) due to risk of pressure necrosis. Use only if banding fails and you need to quickly stop bleeding.
- Insert it like an NGT and inflate the balloon to compress haemorhaging varices in oesophagus and stomach
5) Danis stent (bridge to TIPSS or surgical implantation)
- For those who fail endoscopic therapy, usually due to previous band induced scarring. Varix doesn’t suck up the band.
- Tamponades the bleed
- Superior to Sengstaken tube in small case series
6) TIPSS
- CI in encephalopathy, portal vein thrombosis
- Best thing to do if ongoing bleeding after banding but technically challenging
+/- PPI doesn’t change immediately but may reduce risk of post-banding ulcers
Don’t use erythromycin
Risk factors PUD
H pylori NSAIDs Smoking Stress - ICU/comorbid Chemo agents Crohn's Gastrinoma (Zollinger-Ellison syndrome) Immunosuppression like steroids - prevents healing of small lesions, doesn't cause ulcers
Repeat positive urea breath test after treatment for h pylori (amoxycillin + clarithromycin + PPI)
What to do?
Clarithryomycin resistance >10% resistance
If resistant…
1st line: Rifabutin, doxycyline/tetracycline, PPI, amoxycillin
2nd line: levofloxacin (salvage therapy)
Others
Bismuth containing quadruple therapy (not used much anymore)
Culture and sensitivity
Rx H pylori
1st line
amox (<10% resistance), clarithromycin, PPI
Penicillin allergy
Clarithromycin, metronidazole (>30% resistance), PPI
HIgh resistance
Amoxycillin, metronidazole, PPI
Relative NSAID toxicity in terms of PUD
Aspirin >Indomethacin > ibuprofen >diclofenac > COX2 inhibitor
Rx gastric ulcer
Gastric ulcers can be malignancy
Duodenal ulcers are very rare
Repeat endoscopy in 8 weeks
PPI
Rx PUD
Treat H pylori
Modify NSAID - change aspirin to clopidogrel
PPI
How long does a gastric ulcer take to heal?
8 weeks
How much blood to get melena?
150ml
Red PR bleeding from an upper GI soruce. how much?
Varices and duodenal ulcers
>500ml
Bleeding duodenal ulcer Rx
Inject with adrenaline
Heat probe
Vascular clip
Sprays
What’s a classification for ulcers?
Forrest classification of ulcers
High risk of recurrence: Active bleeding, clot, vessel - high risk of bleeding
Low risk ulcers - clean base, flat red spot
Rx high risk ulcer
PPI infusion for 72h after endoscopic therapy (from time of gastroscopy, not from presentation)
- Reduces rebleeding rate, improves mortality
Must be infusion - changes pH in stomach, stops acid from dissolving clot
Can Barrett’s extend overtime?
Yes if they don’t take PPI
But in general it doesn’t if you take PPI
Short segments can regress after 5-10 years PPI
Pathophysiology of coeliac
1) environmental
- Gluten
2) genetic
- HLADQ2 or DQ8
3) immunological
- TTG deaminates gliadin to peptides to presentation by APC to CD4 T cells
Clinical features of coeliac
Diarrhoea +/- abdo pain/discomfort (<50% cases)
Others
- OP
- IDA
- Infertility and recurrent miscarriages
- Weight loss
Diagnosis of coeliac
- Serology
- Small bowel biopsy
- HLA typing
tTG-IgA + Total IgA level
Reason we do total IgA is because 2% of coeliac disease is IgA deficient
Other option is tTG-IgA + DGP-IgG
Serology cannot diagnose Coeliac in isolation.
High risk patients with negative serology should have small bowel biopsy.
Small bowel biopsy (gold standard)
- Villous atrophy with crypt hyperplasia, raised intraepithelial lymphocytes
- Biopsy from the 1st (x2) and 2nd (x4) part of duodenum
- If any doubt, do 2 week gluten challenge then rebiopsy
HLA typing
- Excellent NPV but poor PPV
- Does not depend on gluten intake
- Absence of HLADA2.5, DQ2.2 and DQ8 exclude the diagnosis
- Presence of HLADQ2 or DQ8 indicates susceptibility to disease but doesn’t mean they have coeliac
Management of coeliac
Gluten free diet
- Recovery takes 6 months+
Refractory disease: may respond to corticosteroids
Nutritional assessment: Fe deficiency, folate, B12, Vitamin D, hypocalcaemia, magnesium, zinc
Screen for complications: TSH, LFTs, fasting BSL, DEXA
Vaccinations (higher risk for pneumococcal sepsis due to hyposplenism)
Associations with coeliac
autoimmune thyroiditis (Hashimoto or Grave’s) (5% have coeliac)
T1DM
Down’s
Dermatitis herpetiformis (50% will have coeliac)
Recurrent infertility (will return to normal after GFD), miscarriages at 8/52 (coeliac ab cross placenta and will attack foetus)
Osteoporosis and fractures (chronic inflammation; poor vitamin D, calcium absorption)
Ataxia, epilepsy