ALCOHOL-INDUCED GASTRIC AND DUODENAL LESIONS IN MAN

  • 1 January 1978
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 70  (6) , 587-592
Abstract
To determine the effect of an acute dose of ethanol on the stomach and duodenum, 7 alcoholic subjects with previously normal upper gastrointestinal endoscopy were reevaluated with endoscopy and direct biopsy 3 h after the oral ingestion of ethanol (1 g/kg body wt) as a 35 g/100 ml solution. After ingestion of alcohol, all 7 subjects had moderate-to-severe antral erythema and friability and 2 had patchy erosions and hemorrhage in the antrum and fundus of the stomach. Of the 7 subjects, 5 had changes in the duodenal bulb consisting of erythema similar to that in the antrum of the stomach. Microscopically, after alcohol, 4 of 7 demonstrated focal subepithelial hemorrhage and another had frank mucosal hemorrhage in the antrum. In the duodenal bulb, 4 of 7 subjects demonstrated focal subepithelial hemorrhage in the tips of bulbar villi and 4 of 7 had striking infiltration of eosinophils in the subepithelial stroma. These histologic alterations were not present in pre-alcohol biopsies or in biopsies in 2 additional subjects given club soda alone or beef bouillon, or in repeat biopsies in 2 subjects re-endoscoped 3 days after the ingestion of alcohol when the endoscopic findings were again normal. A single dose of alcohol consistently causes macroscopic and microscopic antral and duodenal alterations.

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