Clinical and Histopathological Evaluation of Oesophageal Inlet Patch: A Case-Control Study

The oesophageal inlet patch (OIP) is a congenital heterotopic gastric mucosal anomaly located in the upper oesophagus and is often incidentally detected during endoscopy. Despite its conventionally benign classification, the potential associations of this condition with gastrointestinal pathology and systemic biochemical changes remain unclear. The objective of this study was to evaluate the clinical, biochemical and histopathological characteristics of patients with OIP in comparison to a control group. A retrospective case-control study was conducted at a tertiary care centre. Patients presenting with dyspeptic complaints who underwent upper gastrointestinal endoscopy were reviewed. The study group comprised fifty patients with endoscopically identified oesophageal inlet patches, while the control group consisted of fifty age- and symptom-matched patients without inlet patches. A comparative analysis was conducted of demographic characteristics, haematological and biochemical parameters, and histopathological findings from gastric antrum and duodenal biopsies between the groups. There were no statistically significant differences between the groups in terms of gender distribution or mean age (p>0.05). The majority of haematological and biochemical parameters showed no significant differences; however, mean corpuscular volume, direct bilirubin, albumin, ferritin (p=0.000), and CRP levels (p