<![CDATA[Introduction: Dyspepsia is a common symptom encountered by physicians, with a pooled prevalence of about 21%, which may vary depending upon the age, sex, geographical area, and the definitions used for the dyspepsia. Evaluation of dyspepsia is important considering gastric malignancy as one of the etiologies in some cases. The aim of this study was to evaluate the profile of dyspepsia patients clinically and endoscopically in Srinagar. Methods: This descriptive hospital-based study was conducted in the Department of General Medicine and Department of Gastroenterology, Government Medical College Srinagar (Sri Maharaja Harisingh Hospital, SMHS) in Kashmir over a period of one and a half years. Patients with dyspepsia and aged 18 years or more were included in the study. Hemodynamically unstable patients and patients with a history of upper gastrointestinal (UGI) surgery and radiation exposure were excluded. Data was collected and evaluated with respect to the clinical findings, UGI endoscopy, and urea breath test findings. The whole data of patients was entered into a Microsoft Excel spread sheet. Continuous variables, were summarized as mean and standard deviation or as mean and interquartile range. For categorical variables frequencies and percentages were reported Results: About 600 patients were evaluated. The mean age of male and female patients was 50.4+14.4 years and 45.8+10.6 years respectively. The most common esophagogastroduodenoscopy (EGD) finding was antral gastritis, observed in 252 (42%) patients, in which non-erosive antral gastritis was seen in 210 (35%) and erosive antral gastritis in 42 (7%), malignancy, gastric polyp, and gastroduodenitis were observed in 14 (2.33%) patients each, besides other causes. A rapid urease test was done in 40 patients, in which 33 (82.5%) were positive for H. pylori. Conclusion: This study shows benign lesions like antral gastritis as the most common EGD finding however, gastric malignancy is also found frequently, especially in elderly patients with dyspepsia.]]>
