[Histological and ultrastructural characteristics of esophagitis in chronic kidney failure]

Examination of biopsy specimens secured during endoscopy of 70 patients in the terminal stage of chronic renal failure revealed abnormalities characteristic of chronic esophagitis, viz. hyper- and parakeratosis, basal-cell proliferation, acanthotic outgrowths, epithelial thickening, vacuolated cells (with balloon cells being present in some cases), presence of calcium crystals, cisternal widening in the rough endoplasmic reticulum, and mitochondrial swelling with cytoplasmic rupture and hyaloplasmic edema. These dystrophic changes may account for the relatively frequent occurrence of erosional and ulcerous lesions in the esophagus during the terminal stage of the disease.