Ménétrier's disease with lymphocytic gastritis: an unusual association with possible pathogenic implications.

Ménétrier's disease is a rare form of hypertrophic or hyperplastic gastropathy, characterized by conspicuous thickening of the gastric mucosal folds and foveolar (crypt) hyperplasia. The pathogenesis of Ménétrier's disease remains unresolved. Lymphocytic gastritis is a newly described entity which corresponds endoscopically to varioliform gastritis and is marked by T-lymphocyte infiltration of the surface epithelium and crypts. Five surgical cases and one autopsy case combining the gross and microscopic features of Ménétrier's disease and lymphocytic gastritis are presented. This unusual and hitherto previously undescribed association raises the possibility of a common pathogenesis for Ménétrier's disease and lymphocytic gastritis.