[Bacterial flora in gastric juice taken at endoscopy in 93 normal subjects].

Bacteriologic examination of gastric juice samples taken during endoscopy in ninety-three subjects free of endoscopically-detectable disease was performed. Mucosal pH was determined using bromocresol green dye. Among the 17 subjects with a mucosal pH exceeding 4, 11 (64%) had more than 10(5) organisms/ml. In contrast, similar counts were found in only 10 of the 76 subjects with a normal mucosal pH. The pathogens recovered were normal hosts of the upper digestive tract and a few nitrate reductase + Enterobacteriaceae. Questions still to be resolved are whether these pathogens can induce disease and whether bacterial colonization correlates with the increased gastric nitrosamine levels and microscopic mucosal lesions previously described in patients with a gastric pH above 4.