[The prevalence of esophageal disorders in the subjects examined for health screening].
OBJECTIVE
Various disorders can be developed in the esophagus. However, esophagus has been less well focused than other gastrointestinal (GI) tracts since the esophageal disorders are relatively uncommon. There has been no report on the prevalence of overall esophageal disorders in Korea. The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of esophageal disorders in health examinee.


METHODS
We reviewed retrospectively the endoscopic reports of 6,683 subjects who underwent upper GI endoscopy for screening purpose at Gyeongsang National University Hospital from March, 2005 to May, 2006.


RESULTS
Among 6,683 health examinee, 1,154 (17.26%) had esophageal diseases. Gastro-esophageal reflux diseases (GERD) were the most common diseases (14.66%). The prevalence of erosive reflux esophagitis, minor change esophagitis, and Barrett's esophagus was 8.45%, 5.01% and 1.12%, respectively. Hiatal hernia and esophageal submucosal tumor were 2nd and 3rd common diseases (2.0% and 0.6%, respectively). A variety of other esophageal disorders were seen as well. The esophageal disorders with over 0.1% of prevalence were esophageal varices (0.37%), esophageal squamous papilloma (0.31%), esophageal candidiasis (0.25%), nonspecific esophagitis (0.16%), heterotopic gastric mucosa (0.16%), and esophageal vascular ectasia (0.12%) in order.


CONCLUSIONS
The overall prevalence of esophageal disorders among health examinee was 17.3%. The GERD was the main esophageal disease and a variety of esophageal diseases were identified. The endoscopists need to take an interest in the esophageal disorders and a community-oriented well organized study should be warranted.
Yoo
Seung Suk
SS
Department of Internal Medicine & Institute of Health Science, Gyeongsang National University School of Medicine, Jinju, Korea.
Lee
Won Hyun
WH
Ha
Jong
J
Choi
Sun Pil
SP
Kim
Hyun Jin
HJ
Kim
Tae Hyo
TH
Lee
Ok Jae
OJ
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001471:Barrett Esophagus / Q000453:epidemiology; D016099:Endoscopy, Gastrointestinal; D004935:Esophageal Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D005764:Gastroesophageal Reflux / Q000453:epidemiology; D006551:Hernia, Hiatal / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening; D008875:Middle Aged; D010045:Outpatients; D015995:Prevalence; D012189:Retrospective Studies