الفهرس 
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Abstract
Introduction and Aims: Shortsegment Barrett’s esophagus (SSBE) is defined as presence of columnar appearing mucosa in the distal esophagus (< 3 cm in length). This study investigated the prevalence of intestinal metaplasia in biopsied cases suspected to be SSBE and to assess the clinical characteristics of such cases. Materials and Methods: 40 patients suspected of having SSBE had been selected from those subjected to upper gastrointestinal endoscopy for chronic dyspeptic and bleeding manifestations, thorough history and clinical examination were done, then 4quadrant biopsy from suspected areas with histopathological examination with H&E and alcian blue for detection of goblet cells was done. Also, lower esophageal manometry was performed to all patients and also for 10 healthy volunteers as a control group. Results: Male to female ratio was 3 : 1, also, as regard clinical characteristics, drug intake, obesity were predictive of SSBE and chest pain, odynophagia, bleeding and epigastric pain were highly associated with SSBE with high relative risk. As regard histopathological examination less than one third of cases had goblet cells, thus most biopsies from SSBE failed to reveal intestinal metaplasia. Also, dysplasia was found in 3 out of 11 cases of SSBE (27.3%) and although dysplasia has been met within about one third of cases, yet it was associated with two cases without goblet cells. The results of manometric examination of SSBE patients showed significant decreased lower esophageal sphincter pressure and amplitude. Conclusion: The common features of gastroesophageal reflux disease has the same frequency in both patients groups with or without SSBE, and endoscopy although it is important to predict SSBE, its ability to confirm intestinal metaplasia is poor. Goblet cells were found in only less than one third of cases of true SSBE, also, dysplasia were present in 3 cases out of 11 cases of SSBE and 2 cases of them was not associated with goblet cells, and thus the columnar epithelium without goblet cells did not exclude the presence of SSBE and did not decrease the risk of development of dysplasia.