RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Reflux gastritis: distinct histopathological entity?
JF Journal of Clinical Pathology
JO J Clin Pathol
FD BMJ Publishing Group Ltd and Association of Clinical Pathologists
SP 524
OP 530
DO 10.1136/jcp.39.5.524
VO 39
IS 5
A1 M F Dixon
A1 H J O'Connor
A1 A T Axon
A1 R F King
A1 D Johnston
YR 1986
UL http://jcp.bmj.com/content/39/5/524.abstract
AB A total of 98 patients who had either undergone gastric surgery (23) or who had peptic ulcers (56), or who had normal endoscopic findings (19), all underwent gastric biopsy, together with measurement of pH and total bile acid concentration in their fasting gastric juice. The biopsy specimens were graded "blind" for the presence of foveolar hyperplasia; oedema and smooth muscle fibres in the lamina propria; vasodilation and congestion of superficial mucosal capillaries; and a paucity of both acute and chronic inflammatory cells in the brief that these features constituted a distinctive histological picture related to reflux of alkaline duodenal content into the stomach. We found a strong association between severe grades of each of these histological variables and both hypochlorhydria (pH greater than or equal to 4) and increased bile acid concentrations in the stomach. Furthermore, when the individual grades were added together to give a composite "reflux score," there was a significant difference in the incidence of hypochlorhydria (p less than 0.01) and raised bile acid concentrations (p less than 0.005) between those patients with a reflux score above and below 10. Although we do not claim that reflux is invariably accompanied by a distinctive histological picture, we suggest that recognition of this hitherto poorly documented combination of features as reflux gastritis may assist in the selection of patients for specific treatment and minimise the overdiagnosis of premalignant dysplasia (with which the lesion may be confused) in the postoperative stomach.