The morphology of gastritis.

Gastritis is a histopathologic diagnosis, which correlates poorly with both clinical symptoms of non-ulcer dyspepsia and endoscopic abnormalities. Worldwide, most cases of gastritis are due to Helicobacter pylori and are characterized by a diffuse superficial antral gastritis. Chronic inflammatory cells and lymphoid follicles are present in the lamina propria. Neutrophils are present in the surface and pit-lining epithelium. In North America and Western Europe, reactive gastropathy due to duodenal reflux or non-steroidal anti-inflammatory agents is also common. In this condition, there is no increase in inflammatory cells, but the pit-lining cells become hyperplastic, and the pits have a corkscrew appearance. Most examples of multifocal atrophic gastritis are the result of long standing Helicobacter gastritis, although there may be other causes as well. It is characterized by loss of glands in both pyloric and corpus mucosae with intestinal metaplasia of the surface epithelium. A subtype of intestinal metaplasia, in which sulphomucin (large bowel mucin) is present, has been associated with the development of distal gastric cancer. However, this association is relatively weak and is not considered useful for screening purposes. Gastric dysplasia may develop in areas of the stomach affected by intestinal metaplasia. High-grade dysplasia is a significant finding, with up to 60 percent of cases having coincident carcinoma and a further 25 percent of cases likely to develop an invasive malignancy within fifteen months.