Abstract
In an attempt to clarify causes of gastric mucosal lesions in hemodialysis (HD) patients, gastric mucosal blood flows (GMBFs) were endoscopically measured in healthy persons (n=25) and HD patients (n=28) using a laser doppler blood flowmeter. In the gastric antrum, GMDFs of the HD patients (lesser curvature: 20.4±6.8ml/min/100g; greater curvature: 19.0±8.3ml/min/100g) were almost equivalent to those of healthy persons (lesser curvature: 23.0±7.1ml/min/100g; greater curvature: 19.2±5.9ml/min/100g). On the other hand, in the gastric body, the GMBFs (upperbody greater curvature: 19.8±6.4ml/min/100g; lower body lesser curvature: 18.7±5.9ml/min/100g) showed lower values than those of healthy persons (upper body greature curvature: 26.2±8.5ml/min/100g; lower body lesser curvature: 24.4±8.1ml/min/100g), suggesting that HD patients tend to have stress-induced lesions in the gastric body. However, it is known that gastric lesions in HD patients usually occur in the region of the gastric antrum, and accordingly, GMBF changes are not thought to account for gastric lesions. Further studies are, therfore, required to clarify the causes of gastric mucosal lesions in HD patients.
