The endoscopic and pathological findings are depicted in table 2. Most of the patients (38.4%) had normal endoscopic findings. Erythema (33.6%), esophageal ulcer (11.2%), and whitish patch (8.0%) were the most common endoscopic findings of the patients. Histological examination revealed non-specific findings in most of the patients (33.6%). Nevertheless, reflux esophagitis

(32.8%), followed by chronic (6.4%) and acute esophagitis (5.6%) and candida esophagitis (5.6%), was the most common histological diagnoses. Only one (0.8%) Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical patient was diagnosed as having eosinophilic esophagitis, aspergillosis, and graft versus host disease. All the patients received appropriate treatment; and except for 14 (11.2%) patients, the rest were followed up for evaluation until the end of the study period.

Almost all the patients (73.6%) Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical were asymptomatic in a 6-month period after diagnosis, while some (6.4%) had chronic disease without improvement. Table 2 Endoscopic and pathology findings of 125 pediatric patients with esophagitis Discussion The prevalence of esophagitis in the pediatric population has increased in the recent decade, mostly because of the increase in the incidence of GERD in children.5 However, this escalating trend might be, at least in part, in consequence of a rise in the diagnosis of this disorder. Although several studies have investigated the pattern of pediatric esophagitis,2-5 data regarding this issue in our region are scarce. Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical We found that most of our pediatric patients with esophagitis were more than 2 years of age. Repeated vomiting was the Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical prominent symptom in our series, and liver transplantation was the most common related comorbidity. The most common endoscopic and histological findings were erythema and reflux esophagitis, respectively. The prevalence of pediatric esophagitis

is largely unknown. In this regards, Gilger and colleagues,7 found the prevalence of erosive esophagitis to be 12.4% in a population of 888 pediatric patients referring to Texas Pediatric Medical Center. The mean age of the patients Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical in that study was 12.7±4.9 years, which is extremely higher than that in our study. Similarly, the prevalence of esophagitis in children suffering from upper digestive complaints was reported by Rafeey and Ghatami,6 to be 82.9% in a sample of Iranian population. The authors also reported that the most common age group for pediatric esophagitis was 8-12 years, which is very different from that in our series. Gill and colleagues,8 Carnitine dehydrogenase conducted a cross-sectional study, including 1424 diagnostic upper endoscopies, between 1995 and 2004, and reported a prevalence rate of 0.73/10,000 for eosinophilic esophagitis in children. The authors found a higher prevalence in older age Rucaparib mw groups compared with ours. The possible explanation for this age discrepancy can be the fact that the most common etiologies of esophagitis in our series were liver transplantation and postoperative immunosuppression.