The clinical assessment of duodenogastric reflux by scintigraphy and its relation to histological changes in gastric mucosa.

Fifty-seven patients undergoing routine or review gastroscopy had multiple gastric biopsies taken and assessed histologically for gastritis, metaplasia and dysplasia. Duodenogastric reflux was graded scintigraphically by BIDA Scanning. Patients with dysplastic changes in the gastric mucosa (n = 33) had a higher mean grade of reflux 2.1 +/- 0.21 (mean +/- SEM) than patients with no dysplasia (1.1 +/- 0.24: P less than 0.0025). Patients with metaplasia (n = 33) had an increased mean grade of reflux of 2.0 +/- 0.19 compared with patients without metaplasia (1.3 +/- 0.29: P less than 0.05), but there was no significant difference in degree of reflux between patients with and without gastritis. When the grade of reflux was plotted against increasing degrees of mucosal abnormalities, there appeared to be a positive correlation between duodenogastric reflux and severity of mucosal change.