Clinical comparisons between two subsets of gastric antral vascular ectasia

Background: The lesions of gastric antral vascular ectasia take two endosco pic forms, diffuse red spots and red stripes, In addition, they are often a ssociated with cirrhosis, The main aim of the present retrospective study w as to determine whether differences in endoscopic appearance and presence o r absence of cirrhosis have relationships to clinical features and course. Methods: Gastric antral vascular ectasia in 30 patients was classified into 2 endoscopic subtypes, punctate type (21 patients) and striped type (8 pat ients); only 1 patient could not be categorized to either type. The 30 pati ents were divided into groups based on the presence (25) or absence (5) of cirrhosi. Results: All patients with punctate-type vascular ectasias had cirrhosis, w hereas only 38% of patients with the striped type had cirrhosis, All patien ts without cirrhosis had the striped pattern, For patients with the 2 endos copic types as well as those with and without cirrhosis, the outcomes of en doscopic treatment were similar, Conclusions: The findings of the present study suggest that cirrhosis is st rongly associated with the development of punctate-type vascular ectasias. The endoscopic appearance of vascular ectasias and the presence or absence of cirrhosis did not determine outcome of patients.