Intraepithelial haemorrhage of the oesophagus: a terminal event in haematological disorders.
OBJECTIVE
To investigate the clinicopathological findings in cases with intraepithelial haemorrhage of the oesophagus (IHO).


METHODS
Necropsy records and the histopathology findings in the oesophagus were reviewed for the period 1990 to 1995. Six cases (0.7%) of IHO were found among 919 necropsy cases. Clinical records of these patients and gross and microscopic slides were reviewed in detail.


RESULTS
The ages of the IHO cases ranged from 42 to 82 years (average 68 years), with a male to female ratio of 1:2. All cases had underlying haematological disorders with thrombocytopenia, but disseminated intravascular coagulation was not evident in any case. Macroscopically, solitary (two cases) or multiple (four cases) haemorrhagic lesions ranging from 6 to 79 mm in size were identified within the distal oesophagus. Microscopically, there was no inflammatory infiltration, destruction of red blood cells, or submucosal scar formation.


CONCLUSIONS
IHO seems to occur shortly before death as a terminal event in haematological disorders. Based on these observations, the term "terminal IHO" can be suggested for this type of oesophageal lesion.
Shimizu
M
M
Department of Surgical Pathology, Hokkaido University Hospital, Sapporo, Japan. mshimizu@med.hokudai.ac.jp
Matsumoto
T
T
Hirokawa
M
M
Monobe
Y
Y
Iida
M
M
Manabe
T
T
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D004848:Epithelium / Q000473:pathology; D004935:Esophageal Diseases / Q000209:etiology / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D006402:Hematologic Diseases / Q000150:complications*; D006470:Hemorrhage / Q000209:etiology / Q000473:pathology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged