Ménétrier disease

[rasheed]

Ménétrier disease
Is a disease in which there's hypertrophy of the gastric mucosa causing huge rugae These cells produce huge amounts of mucin and thus they may cause protein losing enteropathy and they'll replace the parietal cells and so less HCl secretion therefore no ulcer risk.
However, the uncontrolled hypertrophy may transform to malignancy and therefore patients need to be frequently monitored.
The disease is usually self limited in children.

[lee-usmle]

It's important to remember the differential diagnosis of enlarged gastric rugae
We tend to immediately jump and diagnose it as Ménétrier disease
But in fact it is not the most common cause of enlarged gastric rugae

Here' the list in a descending frequency

1. Gastric lymphoma (not a benign condition)
2. Gastric carcinoma (not a benign condition)
3. Benign gastric tumors
4. Zollinger Ellison Syndrome (many ulcers)
5. and only lastly, Ménétrier disease (no ulcers)