Copyright
©The Author(s) 2016. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Sep 21, 2016; 22(35): 8060-8066
Published online Sep 21, 2016. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v22.i35.8060
Published online Sep 21, 2016. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v22.i35.8060
Trajectories of endoscopic Barrett esophagus: Chronological changes in a community-based cohort
Shouji Shimoyama, Toshihisa Ogawa, Toshiyuki Toma, Gastrointestinal Unit, Settlement Clinic, Adachi-ku, Tokyo 120-0003, Japan
Author contributions: Shimoyama S designed and performed the research, analyzed the data, and wrote the paper; Ogawa T and Toma T performed the research.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Dr. Shouji Shimoyama, Gastrointestinal Unit, Settlement Clinic, 4-20-7, Towa, Adachi-ku, Tokyo 120-0003, Japan. shimoyama@apost.plala.or.jp
Telephone: +81-3-36057747 Fax: +81-3-36050244
Received: May 29, 2016
Peer-review started: May 29, 2016
First decision: June 20, 2016
Revised: June 30, 2016
Accepted: August 5, 2016
Article in press: August 5, 2016
Published online: September 21, 2016
Peer-review started: May 29, 2016
First decision: June 20, 2016
Revised: June 30, 2016
Accepted: August 5, 2016
Article in press: August 5, 2016
Published online: September 21, 2016
Core Tip
Core tip: The authors demonstrated that the appearance or complete regression of Barrett esophagus (BE) occurs constantly over time. Both phenomena are associated with a hiatus hernia but not gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD)-suggested symptoms, suggesting that the appearance of BE occurs silently. These findings imply that a lack of GERD-suggested symptoms is not sufficient to exclude patients from screening an upper gastrointestinal endoscopy for identifying BE. The endoscopists should bear in mind that, along with the silent BE story, they should not miss the chance for the detection of BE and subsequent esophageal adenocarcinoma at an early, presymptomatic stage.