Histopathological study of intestinal metaplasia of postmortem stomachs in the aged Japanese

The incidence and extent of intestinal metaplasia of the stomach in aged Japanese has been studied. Histological studies were carried out on 422 stomachs, obtained at autopsy in Tokyo Geriatric Hospital from 1957 to 1969. The average age of the subjects in this series was 76 yr. Intestinal metaplasia was classified into six types according to its distribution: antral type 14.5%, intermediate zone type 1.7%, cardiac type 4.0%, cardiac and antral type 3.8%, diffuse type 62.8%, and nonmetaplastic type 13.3%. Diffuse type was found to gradually increase in incidence with increasing age and a correlation was found between the extent of the intestinal metaplasia and the degree of atrophic change of the gastric mucosa. Two spreading patterns of the intestinal metaplasia were also observed.