Gastric ulcer and gastritis: results of short-term follow-up examinations.

A hundred and one cases of gastric ulcer were examined in Poland by direct-vision endoscopic biopsy obtained from the antrum, angulus and body far outside the ulcer area, and from the edge of the ulcer. A simple mean score of gastritic changes and of intestinal metaplasia (IM) was calculated for each area, as also a mean score of IM for the mucosa around the ulcer. Two re-examinations were performed, one on average 2 months and the other on average 4.5 years, after the first examination. On the whole, gastritic changes and IM behaved as expected from earlier studies. The most striking finding was the high mean score of the angular mucosa in the case of more proximally situated ulcers. This angular peak was present at all examinations and both in patients healed during the follow-up and those in whom the disease remained active. A corresponding peak of gastritic changes and IM at the angulus was not found in more comprehensive Finnish control material, but was present in another smaller outpatient series, although the differences between the angulus and surrounding tissues were insignificant. At the first examination the mean scores of gastritis and of IM outside and around the ulcer were higher in patients with proximal ulcers in whom the ulcer healed during the observation period than in those, in whom it remained active. This difference was found at the first and at all subsequent examinations, and some of the differences were statistically significant.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)