The relationship between reflux symptoms and glycogenic acanthosis lesions of the oesophagus

Introduction
Glycogenic acanthosis (GA) is a benign, polypoid lesion frequently seen in upper endoscopy with little known aetiology. Information about how it occurs and its clinical significance is lacking.

Aim
In this study, the relationship between GA and reflux symptoms was investigated in patients who underwent endoscopy due to reflux symptoms.

Material and methods
Sixty patients undergoing endoscopy for reflux symptoms and 60 controls without reflux symptoms were included in the study. Among the patients with reflux symptoms, two groups were formed: GA group 1 (n = 30) and non-GA group 2 (n = 30).

Results
The mean age of all patients participating in the study was 44.65 ±15.54 years; in group 1 it was 52.56 ±10.90 years and in group 2 it was 39.40 ±13.87 years. The mean age of group 1 patients was statistically significantly higher than that of group 2 patients (p < 0.05). The incidence of GA was higher in group 1 than in the control group (p = 0.001). In the reflux group, group 1 and group 2 were compared in terms of oesophagitis; group 1 had a higher incidence of oesophagitis (p < 0.05). In the reflux group, in those with GA, the risk of oesophagitis was 6.6 times higher than among those without GA (OR = 6.571; 95% CI: 2.109–20.479).

Conclusions
We think that GA is associated with advanced age, reflux disease, and oesophagitis in our study.