Reproducibility of esophageal biopsy sampling procedure

Abstract

The main objective of this study was to evaluate the biopsy sampling procedure in the detection of esophageal precancerous lesions. Biopsies were taken one from the middle-third and one from the lower-third of the esophagus of 28 subjects from a high incidence area for esophageal cancer in Henan, China. The sampling procedure was repeated on the same subjects 10 days later. During this period, all subjects followed their usual dietary habits. Histopathological analysis showed that in the second sampling from the middle-third of the esophagus, 24% of the subjects had less severe lesions, 28% had more severe lesions and 48% had the same severity of lesions. From the lower-third of the esphagus, 48% of the subjects had less severe lesions, 16% had more severe lesions and 32% had the same severity of lesions. These results suggest that the reproducibility of biopsy procedure could be a factor for the previously reported “reversion” or “progression” of precancerous lesions in follow-up studies.