Chronic gastritis and gastric acid secretion in uraemic and renal transplant patients.

Upper gastrointestinal endoscopy with biopsies from the antrum, body and duodenum, as well as tests for acid secretion were performed on 43 uraemic patients, 17 women and 26 men, (mean age 49.7 years) and on 46 patients with well-functioning renal transplant received 10 months earlier (12 women and 34 men, mean age 40.6 years) in order to study the background of peptic lesions in uraemic patients. Eighty-nine age- and sex-matched subjects selected from a random population sample consisting of 434 persons served as a control group. All groups of renal patients were similar with respect to the prevalence and severity of antral or body chronic gastritis. Compared with control subjects their antrum had significantly less advanced chronic gastritis, which was due to the lack of atrophic changes. Furthermore, the gastric body tended to show fewer alterations than that of the controls. The acid secretion capacity in the renal patients decreased with the increasing severity of atrophic changes in the body mucosa. However, definite hypoacidity was found in some of the renal patients with normal body mucosa. Thus, a true "state of hypoacidity" seems to occur in chronic uraemia.