Background: In numerous articles, it is stated that an esophageal inlet patch (IP) is often missed during routine endoscopy.  IP, a salmon-colored, velvet-appearing, distinct area of heterotopic gastric mucosa, typically is located just distal to the upper esophageal sphincter and is usually a single lesion ranging from a few millimeters to >5 cm.  Estimates on prevalence ranges from 0.1% to 10%.

A recent study (G Di Nardo et al. J Pediatr 2016; 176: 99-104) examined 1000 consecutive patients <18 years. Symptoms often attributed to IP include chronic cough, sore throat, dysphagia, globus pharyngeus, hoarseness, and vocal cord dysfunction.

Key findings:

• The authors noted an IP incidence of 6.3%.
• 35 of the 63 patients were asymptomatic.
• The authors state that 17 of the 63 patients had chronic IP-related symptoms and all 17 were unresponsive to PPI therapy.  All were treated “successfully” with argon plasma coagulation (APC)
• Median size was 13.3 mm.
• The authors state that they did not find any acid-independent episodes related to IP, though pH-MII studies did help identify several patients with underlying GERD.

My take: Since the treatment of IP was not randomized/blinded and many patient’s with IP are asymptomatic, it remains unclear to me how many patients with IP truly benefit from APC treatment.