Telangiectasia and vascular spiders in the oesophagus in liver cirrhosis

2,000 endoscopic examinations of the upper digestive tract (esophagus, stomach and duodenum) were performed in the same number of patients. The examination was indicated because of digestive tract hemorrhage in 1,026 patients and for other reasons in the remaining 974. 148 of the 2,000 cases had liver cirrhosis; 20 of them (13.51%) showed vascular dilatations in the esophagus 1 mm in diameter, red in colour, distributed especially on the inferior third; in 7 of the 20 cases, vascular spiders were observed in the esophagus. Telangiectasia and vascular spiders were not observed in any of the 1,852 patients without liver cirrhosis. These differences are statistically significant.