title: [Gastric vascular ectasia (GAVE) or watermelon stomach (WS): infrequent cause of anemia].
abstract: The gastric vascular ectasia (GAVE) or watermelon stomach (WS) is an unfrequent cause of anemia or evident upper gastrointestinal bleeding in elderly patients. We presented five female patients, average age 79 years, 4 of them with a long evolution anemia and one with melena. Three of them showed a typical WS endoscopy, 2 of them with diffuse patent. All 5 cases with positive pathologic findings: vascular ectasia, fibrin thrombi and fibromuscular hyperplasia. The endoscopic biopsy is as accurate as the study of the antrectomy piece. None of them had portal hypertension although the GAVE would be different entity from the cirrhotic vascular gastropathy. The treatment consisted in monopolar electrocoagulation of the lesions after the failure with the medical treatment in one case, corticosteroid and ferrous therapies in the three cases and one of them didn't require treatment up to now.
authors.affiliation: Centro de Gastroenterología y diagnóstico por Imágenes, Rosario, Santa Fe, Argentina.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Rainoldi
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Naves
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Rainoldi
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D018798:Anemia, Iron-Deficiency / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000209:etiology*; D001706:Biopsy; D002908:Chronic Disease; D016145:Endoscopy, Digestive System; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007501:Iron / Q000627:therapeutic use; D008551:Melena / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000209:etiology; D011239:Prednisolone / Q000627:therapeutic use; D011706:Pyloric Antrum / Q000098:blood supply* / Q000473:pathology; D014652:Vascular Diseases / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000188:drug therapy
chemical_list: D011239:Prednisolone; D007501:Iron