Clinical features and endoscopic findings in 3009 patients attending for routine diagnostic gastroscopy stratified by endoscopist type (patients whose examinations were unsuccessful were excluded from the latter analyses)
| Medical endoscopist (n=1522) | Nurse endoscopist (n=1487) | p Value | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Results relating to patient age are expressed as means (SD). | |||
| *Student’s t test; †χ2 test; ‡Fisher’s exact test. | |||
| §Some patients had more than one indication for endoscopy and thus percentages do not total 100%. | |||
| ¶Includes weight loss, assessment of radiological abnormality, disease follow up, and assessment of diarrhoea. | |||
| **Includes cancer, Barrett’s oesophagus, oesophagitis, benign stricturing disease, oesophageal or gastric varices, peptic ulcer disease, and vascular lesions. | |||
| †† Includes hiatus hernia, gastric polyps, gastritis, and duodenitis. | |||
| Patient age (y) | 57.4 (17.5) | 58.8 (16.8) | 0.02* |
| Patient sex | |||
| Male | 679 (45%) | 721 (49%) | 0.04† |
| Female | 843 (55%) | 766 (51%) | |
| Indication for endoscopy§ | |||
| Dyspepsia | 853 (56%) | 890 (60%) | 0.04† |
| Dysphagia | 123 (8%) | 109 (7%) | 0.48† |
| Anaemia | 225 (15%) | 239 (16%) | 0.35† |
| Haematemesis/melaena | 206 (14%) | 159 (11%) | 0.02† |
| Other¶ | 294 (19%) | 318 (21%) | 0.17† |
| Inpatient status | |||
| Inpatient | 299 (20%) | 283 (19%) | 0.70† |
| Outpatient | 1223 (80%) | 1204 (81%) | |
| Endoscope intubation | |||
| Successful | 1505 (99%) | 1479 (99%) | 0.12‡ |
| Failure | 17 (1%) | 8 (1%) | |
| Diagnosis | |||
| Significant disease** | 432 (29%) | 463 (31%) | |
| Incidental disease†† | 540 (36%) | 574 (39%) | 0.006† |
| Normal | 533 (35%) | 442 (30%) | |
| Biopsy for pathological assesment | |||
| Yes | 419 (28%) | 418 (28%) | 0.83† |
| No | 1086 (72%) | 1061 (72%) | |
| Biopsy for rapid urease test | |||
| Yes | 453 (20%) | 369 (25%) | 0.002† |
| No | 1052 (70%) | 1110 (75%) | |