The total number of reported UGI endoscopies was 123, providing a median of 10 per Department. No data were collected on eligibility and inclusion rate per centre. The main results of the exams are presented in Table 1. Most UGI endoscopies were performed as outpatient procedures (84%), most required no type of sedation (78%) and 50% of the participants were undergoing

a UGI endoscopy for the first time. Most UGI endoscopies were diagnostic but in 15% of them at least one additional technique was performed (injection, polypectomy, dilation or stent placement). Most of the exams had no complications (98%) with only 3 cases of minor Selleck Adriamycin haemorrhage after endoscopic polypectomy, all resolved without any requirement for blood transfusion, surgery or inpatient care. The most frequent

indications were presence or suspicion of haemorrhage (20%), abdominal pain or dyspepsia (18%) or reflux (12%). These indications were the ones reported by the attending endoscopists, even when emergency exams were excluded from the study (probably the haemorrhage cases are related to complaints of anaemia or melaena without haemodynamic instability). The exam was considered abnormal selleck kinase inhibitor in 77% of cases, with most frequent endoscopic diagnosis being “gastritis” (28%), “gastric atrophy” (14%) and oesophagitis (11%). When examining the cases that entailed an additional histology report, a histopathological diagnosis of gastritis was found in 56% of patients (95% CI: 42–70%) with atrophy in 19% (95% CI: 8–30%), extensive atrophy or intestinal metaplasia in corpus in 15% (95% CI 5–25%) and positivity for H. pylori in 38% (95% CI: 23–53%). When comparing first-time UGI endoscopy

cases with a repeated exam, no differences were found in terms of histological diagnosis of gastritis (56% vs. 57%, p = 0.91), atrophy (22% vs. 14%, p = 0.71), extensive SPTLC1 atrophy or intestinal metaplasia (11% vs. 19%, p = 0.68) or H. pylori positivity (44% vs. 30%, p = 0.36) ( Table 2). Also, when comparing the influence of age on the same diagnosis (age < vs. ≥ 50 years), the respective proportions were not statistically significant between groups: 56% vs. 56% for gastritis; 21% vs. 11% for atrophy, 11% vs. 15% for extensive atrophy or intestinal metaplasia and 63% vs. 31% for H. pylori positivity ( Table 3). Outcome assessment in the field of UGI endoscopy is seldom reported in the scientific literature and information is scarce worldwide. With this one-day cross-sectional study we intended to conduct the very first national assessment of UGI endoscopy practice and to assess the prevalence of premalignant gastric conditions or lesions on a multicenter population basis.