HISTOPATHOLOGICAL EVALUATION OF GASTRIC BIOPSIES FOR DIFFERENT TYPES OF GASTRITIS AND THE ASSOCIATED EPITHELIAL CHANGES RETROSPECTIVE STUDY

Abstract

The histological approach to the diagnosis of chronic gastritis has undergone a series of re-evaluation over the last decade. TIJ.is is due to recognition of forms of chronic gastritis with specific clinical and epidemiological implications. The most important is the discovery of Helicobacter pylori-induced gastritis, which is proved the most common cause of several gastric diseases. Other classes of special fonns gastritis have been also recognized, such as chemical gastritis, lymphocytic gastritis, granulomatous gastritis, eosinopllilic gastritis and collagenous gastritis. A system of classification and description of gastritis is the Sydney system, which represents an attempt to document gastritis precisely and to unifonn the reportirig of the pathological findings in the gastric biopsy. Full application of this system requires interpretation of multiple biopsies. In some cases of chronic gastritis, the gastric epithelimn may have changes as atrophic, metaplastic and dysplastic changes. The severe grades of these changes are proved precancerous lesions. In tllis retrospective study we e,•aiuated 520 gastric biopsies in the

period from January 1993 to June 2001 and categorized them into 66.7% chronic gastritis, 2.1% acute erosive gastritis, 1.7% peptic ulcers, 1.7% biopsies without significant changes, 6.1% bad biopsies tmfit for pathological diagnosis, 7.7% intestinal-type gastric carcinoma, 6.9% diffuse-type carcinoma, 0.4% MALT lymphoma. By re-evaluation of biopsies of chronic gastritis, we found 6.9% superficial gastritis, 8.3% multifocal atrophic gastritis, 5.2% diffuse antral gastritis 1.7% chemical gastritis, 27% H. pylori-induced gastritis 0.2% candida! gastritis and 50.7% chronic nonspecific gastritis. The prevalence of H. pylori infection in males (30%) was higher then that in females (24%).