[The role of endoscopic study in the diagnosis of precancerous gastric pathology and identification of a risk group].

The results of endoscopic diagnosis and case follow-up of 686 patients with precancerous gastric conditions usually identified as a risk group (chronic gastritis, polyps, peptic ulcer, conditions following distal stomach resections) have shown that in patients with symptoms of epithelial dysplasia of gastric mucosa indices of cancer detectability significantly exceeded those in similar pathological conditions without symptoms of epithelial dysplasia. They were 22.0 +/- 2.5% and 2.5 +/- 0.8%, respectively; indices of stage I stomach cancer detectability were 9.9 +/- 1.8% and 0.2 +/- 0.2%, respectively. Patients with precancerous stomach diseases with moderate and severe epithelial dysplasia found in their gastric biopsies, should be attributed to a risk group, and these changes of gastric mucosa must be regarded as the main criterion for the identification of such a group.