Frequency of morphological changes in gastric biopsies associated with Helicobacter pylori infection

Abstract

Introduction: morphological changes associated with gastric H. pylori infection have been reported, such as chronic superficial gastritis, atrophic gastritis, follicular gastritis and intestinal metaplasia. Importance: Gastric atrophy and metaplasia are part of the cascade of histological changes that lead to gastric cancer.

Methods: a retrospective cross-sectional study analyzing patients with dyspepsia; gastric endoscopy and biopsies were conducted during their exams. The presence or absence of H. pylori infection was documented along with the morphological changes present.

Results: a total of 127/166 cases were positive for H. pylori infection on gastric biopsy (76.5%), and 39/166 cases were negative for H. pylori on gastric biopsy (23.4%). The average age was 45.38 years, 80/127 (63%) were female, 61/127 had superficial chronic gastritis (48%), 43/127 (33.87%) had nodular gastritis, 7/127 (5.5%) had gastric atrophy, and 7/127 (5.5%) had intestinal metaplasia. Of the biopsies which were negative for H. pylori, 5/39 (12.8%) had a diagnosis of atrophy, and 4/39 (10.2%) had a finding of metaplasia. in those with a diagnosis of atrophy.

Conclusions: the morphological changes found in gastric biopsies are similar to those reported in the international literature. Atrophy, and especially intestinal metaplasia, are morphological changes associated with H. pylori infection, and, in turn, risk factors for developing gastric cancer, which were documented in our study. There are H. pylori-negative cases with superficial atrophic and metaplastic changes; thus, it is advisable to carry out further studies to completely rule out H. pylori infection.