title: McCormack's endoscopic signs for diagnosing portal hypertension: comparison with gastroesophageal varices.
abstract: To assess the significance of McCormack's gastric mucosal signs for diagnosing portal hypertension, 100 controls and 100 patients with cirrhosis and portal hypertension underwent endoscopy. Each endoscopic recording was reviewed by multiple blinded observers to reduce bias. Individual signs more frequently observed in patients with cirrhosis and portal hypertension than in controls were fine pink speckling (20% versus 8%, p < 0.05), the snakeskin pattern (30% versus 5%, p < 0.01), and cherry-red spots (15% versus 3%, p < 0.01). In contrast, the prevalence of superficial reddening was similar in the two groups (7% versus 13%, NS). Overall, these gastric mucosal signs also appeared more commonly in patients with portal hypertension than in controls (54% versus 27%, p < 0.01); the sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of McCormack's signs (overall assessment) for diagnosing portal hypertension were 54%, 73%, and 64%, respectively. Corresponding figures for modified McCormack's signs (exclusion of superficial reddening) were 50%, 85%, and 68%. However, these figures were still lower than those for gastroesophageal varices (72%, 100%, and 86%). We conclude that (1) superficial reddening is not a specific finding in patients with portal hypertension, and (2) gastric mucosal findings are of low sensitivity and specificity for diagnosing portal hypertension compared with gastroesophageal varices.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine II, Kurume University School of Medicine, Japan.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Iwao
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Toyonaga
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ikegami
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Shigemori
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Oho
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sumino
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sakaki
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nakayama
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Nishiyama
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Minetoma
mesh_terms: D004932:Esophageal and Gastric Varices / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D005753:Gastric Mucosa / Q000473:pathology*; D005773:Gastroscopy; D006801:Humans; D006975:Hypertension, Portal / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000473:pathology; D008103:Liver Cirrhosis / Q000150:complications; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015588:Observer Variation; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity