Giant Gastric Folds in Juvenile Polyposis

Abstract

To advance the diagnostic accuracy of juvenile polyposis syndrome, an important yet often difficult diagnosis, we describe in detail a new and medically significant presentation. This hereditary and high-risk GI cancer syndrome is often associated with hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia, as in this 47-year-old female patient with a SMAD4 germline pathogenic mutation. Total gastrectomy revealed giant gastric folds with inflamed foveolar hyperplasia consuming most of the gastric cardia and body but sparing the antrum. Together, this gross and histologic pathology mimics Ménétrier's disease, an exceedingly rare and acquired protein-losing hypertrophic gastropathy. Classical gastric juvenile polyposis almost always and principally involves the antrum with multiple distinctive inflammatory polyps rather than the newly illustrated giant gastric folds of this case. No reports of giant gastric folds in juvenile polyposis have appeared in the literature. The distinction between juvenile polyposis and Ménétrier's disease is essential due to their disparate clinical outcomes and management. The differential considerations for giant gastric folds and inflamed gastric foveolar hyperplasia are fully reviewed. On the basis of this report, the differential for giant gastric folds must now expand to include juvenile polyposis syndrome. Genetic testing for pathogenic germline mutations of the 2 known causative genes of this syndrome, namely SMAD4 and BMPR1A, are readily available and should become part of the evaluation of giant gastric folds, particularly in view of the neoplastic and hereditary aspects of juvenile polyposis syndrome.

Keywords: Gastrointestinal pathology; Giant gastric folds; Juvenile polyposis syndrome; Juvenile polyps; Ménétrier's disease.