Upper abdominal complaints and gastritis.

To evaluate the significance of gastritis as a cause of upper abdominal complaints consecutive cases with upper abdominal complaints have been subjected to gastroscopy with biopsies of the antral and body mucosa. The results were compared with those obtained from two representative population samples: one Finnish and one Estonian. The progression of gastritis on an individual level was expressed as an age-adjusted score. It appeared that the progression of gastritis in the series did not significantly differ from the controls, confirming our earlier experience that gastritis as such can hardly be used for the explanation of upper abdominal complaints.