title: Regular arrangement of collecting venules: Does patient age affect its accuracy?
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To address the diagnostic value of the regular arrangement of collecting venules (RAC) among old age patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 390 consecutive patients whose Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) status was known and who received upper gastrointestinal endoscopy, were retrospectively studied for the presence or absence of RAC as well as gastric mucosal atrophy. The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value and accuracy of RAC to detect normal gastric mucosa were assessed and were compared among two different age groups of patients.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The mean age ± standard deviation (SD) of included patients (n = 390), was 62.9 ± 13 years. The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value and accuracy of RAC to detect normal gastric mucosa were 91.7%, 66.1%, 18.8%, 99% and 68.1% respectively. Although the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value and accuracy of RAC among patients < 60 years (n = 139) was 94.7%, 71.2%, 46.2%, 98.1%and 76.1%, respectively, it was 80%, 64.3%, 5.1%, 93% and 64.6%, respectively, among patients ≥ 60 years (n = 251). Younger Patients (< 60 years), have highly significant rates of RAC sensitivity, positive predictive value, and accuracy (P ≤ 0.001, ≤ 0.001 and ≤ 0.02, respectively). Older patients had highly significant rates of H. pylori infection and gastric mucosal atrophy (P ≤ 0.01).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Although RAC is a valuable sign for real-time identification of normal gastric mucosa, its accuracy seems to be affected by the patient's age.
authors.affiliation: Alshimaa Alaboudy, Ashraf Elbahrawy, Shigemi Matsumoto, Tsutomu Chiba, Department of Endoscopy, Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto University, Kyoto 606-8507, Japan.
authors.forename: Alshimaa
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Alaboudy
authors.forename: Ashraf
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Elbahrawy
authors.forename: Shigemi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Matsumoto
authors.forename: Ghada M
authors.initials: GM
authors.lastname: Galal
authors.forename: Tsutomu
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Chiba