Lecture 23 (DSA): GI Clinical Correlations Flashcards
What are things that need to considered/asked when a patient presents w/ nausea, vomiting, and/or abdominal pain?
- What medications they are taking, including NSAIDs, herbal supplements, and birth control
- If they are a women of childbearing age, pregnancy should ALWAYS be a differential diagnosis
What is Oropharyngeal dysphagia?
Someone is having difficulty swallowing. After chewing food they are having a hard time transferring food from their mouth to esophagus and initiating swallowing.
What are causes of Oropharyngeal dysphagia?
- Neurological disorders: MS, Parkinsons, Huntingtons
- Muscular and rheumatologic disorders: myopathies
- Metabolic disorders: thryrotoxicosis, Cushing disease, Wilson’s
- Infectious disease: polio, botulism, lyme’s, diptheria, syphilis
- Structural disorders: Zenker’s diverticulum, oropharyngeal tumor
- Motility disorders: UES dysfunction
What is Esophageal dysphagia?
Patients will complain of chest pain/discomfort and feel like food is getting stuck. This more of a mid- to lower-esophagus dysphagia.
What are causes of Esophageal dysphagia and which ones are linked to problems with swallowing solids vs. liquids or both?
Mechanical obstruction: solid foods worse than liquids
- Schatzki ring
- Peptic stricture
- Esophageal cancer
- Eosinophilic esophagitis
Motility disorder: probelms w/ both solids and liquids
- Achalasia
- Diffuse esophageal spasm
- Scleroderma
- Ineffective esophageal motility
What is primary acahlasia?
- Progressive dysphagia (months –> years) for solids and liquids due to impaired relaxation of the LES resulting from loss of nitric oxide-producing inhibitory neurons in the myenteric plexus
How is primary achalsia diagnosed (hint: there are 3 steps)?
- Barium esophagogram w/ “birds beak” distal esophagus
- After barium esophagram, EDG (endoscopy) is always performed to evaluate distal esophagis and gastroesophageal junction to exclude a mechanical obstruction (stricture or cancer)
- Esophageal manometry CONFIRMS the diagnosis
What is Secondary Achalasia?
- Chagas disease caused by the parasite = Trypansoma cruzi
- Should always be considered in patients from endemic regions
How is Secondary Achalasia diagnosed?
A peripheral blood smear w/ parasitic evidence
What can Secondary Achalasia lead to years later?
- Cardiomyopathy
- Megacolon
- Megaesophagus
- Romaña sign (peri-orbital swelling)
What are the alarm features and red flags of concern in dyspepsia and epigastric pain that indicate further workup needed?
- Progressive Dysphagia
- Odynophagia: painful swallowing
- Hematemesis: blood in vomit
- Melana: black tarry sticky stools
- Unintentional weight loss
- Persistent vomiting
- Constant/severe pain
- Unexplained iron deficiency anemia
- Family hx of upper gastrointestinal cancer
- Palpable mass
- Lymphadenopathy
What are the symptoms of a peptic ulcer?
- Epigastric pain that is: gnawing, dull, sharp, burning, aching, or “hunger-like”
- Most patients have sympotmatic periods lasting up to several wees w/ intervals of months to years in which they are pain free (periodicitiy)
What are the signs of GI bleeding?
“Coffee grounds” emesis, hematemesis, melena, or hematochezia
What is H. pylori associated with, which is more common, and which strain significantly increases risk of ulcers?
- Peptic ulcer disease (duodenal > gastric)
- Chronic gastritis
- Gastric adenocarcinoma
- Gastric mucosa associated lymphoid tissue (MALT) lymphoma
- Cag-A toxin positive strains significantly increase risk of ulcer
Where in stomach is chronic gastritis most common and what levels are increased?
Antrum of stomach –> increased gastrin (not above 1000 like Zollinger Ellison) –> increase in HCL production by parietal cells -> increased risk of duodenal ulcer
What 2 tests are used in the detection of H. pylori and what are the features of each?
1) Urea breath test: great first line test, used to confirm eradication
2) Fecal antigen test: great first line, non-invasive test, sensitive, specific, and inexpensive. Can be used to confirm eradication
What is it important to have the patient do before testing for H. pylori?
Stop proton pump inhibitor medication (PPI) x 14 days before fecl and breath tests or high chance of a false negative test
What part of stomach are gastric ulcers typically found in, symptoms description, and treatment?
Location: lesser curvature of the antrum of stomach
Symptoms: sharp and burning epigastric pain, worsens with 30 min - 1 hour after eating
Tx: Proton pump inhibitor, eradicate H. pylori
What part of duodenum are duodenal ulcers typically found in, symptoms description, and treatment?
Location: proximal duodenum, if distal to 2nd portion (think ZES)
Symptoms: gnawing epigastric pain that worses 3-5 hrs after eating, may be temporarily relieved by food/eating
Tx: proton pump inhibitors, eradicate H. pylori
Differentiate a Cushing ulcer from a Curling ulcer
Cushing ulcer: secondary to intracranial lesion, injury
Curling ulcer: seoncdary to severe burns
When should ZES be considered?
- Ulcers in atypical locations
- Enlarged gastric folds
- Diarrhea
- Steatorrhea
- Weight loss
- Significantly elevated fasting gastrin level and positive secretin stimulation test
What is the most common location of gastrinomas?
- Most commonly in the duodenum (primary gastrinoma)
- Sometimes pancreatic
25% of gastrinomas are associated with?
Multiple Endocrine Neoplasia (MEN 1)
What is likely suggestive of ZES when GI imaging or endoscopy is performed?
Large mucosal folds
