Lugol staining pattern in background epithelium of patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma

Squamous cell carcinoma of the esophagus often arises in the setting of chronic esophagitis. We investigated whether chronic esophagitis was associated with carcinogenesis in the esophageal squamous epithelium.

Videoendoscopy with Lugol staining was performed in 70 patients with invasive carcinoma of the esophagus. We especially focused the study on background epithelium of the esophagus, then background epithelium was classified into two groups according to differences in Lugol staining patterns. Following Lugol solution spraying, background epithelium showing uniform greenish-brown staining was defined as having a uniform pattern. In contrast, when multiple Lugol-unstained speckles were present throughout the esophagus, the pattern was defined as speckled. Furthermore, we also investigated whether glycogenic acanthosis is present or not in background epithelium.

Chronic esophagitis was present in 11 of 70 patients (16%) with invasive carcinoma, indicating a speckled pattern in background epithelium following Lugol solution spraying. The remaining 84% of patients with invasive carcinoma showed normally uniform Lugol staining background epithelium. Glycogenic acanthosis was found in 65 (93%) of 70 patients.

Approximately 80% of patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma showed normal Lugol staining of background epithelium. Field carcinogenesis is postulated to be not predominant in the development of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma in our Japanese subjects. In contrast, glycogenic acanthosis of the esophagus was associated with the background epithelium accompanied with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.