Gastritis cystica profunda: clinical and pathologic study of seven cases and review of literature.

Gastritis cystica profunda (GCP) is a rare lesion characterized by hyperplasia and cystic dilatation of the gastric glands in the submucosal layer. Here we report seven cases of GCP. The patients are 5 women and 2 men with a mean age of 62 (range, 42-82) years at the time of diagnosis. The patients presented with abdominal distension, sour regurgitation, and heartburn. One case had the previous gastric surgery and the other six cases had no special history. The lesions were located in the fundus (4/7), corpus (1/7), cardia (1/7), and antrum (1/7). Endoscopic analysis revealed pedunculated polyps, or a dome-shaped polyp. Histologically, all cases showed dilated tubular glands, mainly located in the submucosa, among the muscularis mucosa, and occasionally in the lamina propria. The glands were lined by bland single columnar epithelium with infolding features in some areas. Mitotic activity and marked cellular atypia were not present. The stroma in some cases was mildly edematous with infiltrated lymphocytes and plasma cells. There was no epithelial dysplasia in the overlying mucosa. Immunohistochemically, the Ki-67 index was < 1%. P53 immunostaining was generally characterized as wild type in all cases. Based on the morphology of the glands and the cells and the possible mechanism of hyperplasia and cystic dilatation of the gastric glands, it is easy to differentiate GCP from a well-differentiated adenocarcinoma.