Types of atrophic gastritis in patients with primary Sjögren's syndrome.

Histological examination of the gastric mucosa was performed in 44 patients with primary Sjögren's syndrome with extraglandular symptoms (mean age 51.9, range 22-76). Biopsy specimens were taken from each of three separate regions: the antrum, the corpus, and the transitional zone between the antrum and the corpus. The incidence of chronic atrophic gastritis was considerably higher in patients with Sjögren's syndrome than in the controls. In the young patients with Sjögren's syndrome atrophic lesions were more common both in the antrum and in the corpus than in the control group. In middle aged patients, however, only the antrum, and in the elderly only the corpus, was much more commonly affected than in the controls. All three types of chronic atrophic gastritis occurred in patients with Sjögren's syndrome. Decreased gastric acid secretion was associated mainly with atrophic gastritis of types A and AB, whereas hypergastrinaemia occurred almost exclusively in gastritis of type A.