Grading of superficial antral gastritis: comparison of cell-counting and photographic-based methods

A cell-counting technique and a photographic-based scoring system for assessing inflammatory cell infiltration were compared for agreement in 275 endoscopic gastric antral biopsies from 55 dyspeptic patients. Each biopsy was independently scored 0-5 for polymorphs and mononuclear cells using both methods, and a mean score was derived for each patient. There was a highly significant correlation between the mean patient scores obtained using each method (P less than 0.001). Agreement statistics showed that the mean score difference (cell-counting minus photographic score) was negative for polymorphonuclear and mononuclear cells, indicating that the photographic method yielded higher mean patient scores. Scatterplots of difference versus mean by the two methods showed that only 3.6 per cent of scores fell outside +/- 2 SD of the mean difference. The use of standard photomicrographs to grade superficial antral gastritis therefore provides accurate results, comparable to those obtained by cell counting, yet is a faster and much cheaper technique.