DNA flow cytometric measurements in inflammatory and malignant human gastric lesions

102 gastroscopically taken biopsy specimens which were normal (n = 28) or showed superficial gastritis (n = 18), chronic atrophic gastritis (n = 18), gastric ulcers (n = 19) and gastric carcinomas (n = 19) were submitted to FCM analysis. Carcinomatous specimens were readily recognized by either ploidy abnormality or significantly raised S- and G2 + M values. Intestinal-type and diffuse carcinomas could not be distinguished by proliferation kinetics, however, diffuse carcinomas showed a higher rate of aneuploidy. Chronic atrophic gastritis and gastric ulcers, though significantly differing from both normal tissue and superficial gastritis, exhibited similar proliferation characteristics. In gastric ulcers, an S-phase proportion of more than 12% was correlated with histological detection of cellular atypias and a proliferative tendency.