[Chronic gastritis and intestinal metaplasia]

Much has been written about gastric mucosae behavior and the occurrence of intestinal metaplasia. The aim of this paper is to learn something more about these matters in peruvian population. We selected 100 patients with endoscopically no localized lesions between 30 to 70 years of age. We took 8 samples of gastric mucosae in each patient which were carefully examined for the presence of inflammatory changes, settle the line type between antral and fundic mucosae and the frequency of intestinal metaplasia finding. The results showed disagreement between endoscopic and histological findings, so we conclude it is better to diagnose chronic gastritis on the basis of histological parameters. The line between antral and fundic mucosae was of the close type one found in 87% of all cases and it advanced proximally with increasing age. Intestinal metaplasia was present in 46% of the whole number of patients and the rate of occurrence increased in 50% over 50 years age. These findings will let us compare future investigations of gastric mucosae behavior with localized benign or malign lesions.