To analyze the clinical characteristics of patients with
ulcerative colitis who have upper gastrointestinal lesions, we retrospectively reviewed the data of 216 patients with
ulcerative colitis who underwent esophagogastroduodenoscopy at our institute in April 2008-March 2016. We investigated the endoscopic features and compared the clinical characteristics between the patients with and without upper gastrointestinal lesions. Forty-two patients (19.4%) had upper gastrointestinal lesions, including multiple erosions (n=18), bamboo joint-like appearance (n=17), mucosa with white spots (n=4), friable mucosa (n=2),
ulcer (n=1), and purulent deposits within the mucosa (n=1) in the stomach and/or duodenum. Compared to the patients without upper gastrointestinal lesions, those with upper gastrointestinal lesions showed significantly more frequent extraintestinal manifestations (19.0% vs. 8.0%, p<0.05) and a significant history of
colectomy (33.3% vs. 12.1%, p<0.01). There were no significant differences with regard to the sex ratio, age at esophagogastroduodenoscopy, gastrointestinal symptoms, time since the diagnosis of
ulcerative colitis, type of
colitis at the initial diagnosis of
ulcerative colitis, or gastric
atrophy between the groups. In conclusion, gastroduodenal lesions were identified in 19.4% of the patients with
ulcerative colitis. Esophagogastroduodenoscopy is particularly recommended for
ulcerative colitis patients who show extraintestinal manifestations and for those who have undergone a
colectomy.