Gastric antral vascular ectasia: a case report of a 10 year follow-up with special consideration of histopathological aspects.

The diagnosis of gastric antral vascular ectasia (GAVE) was made in a 67 year old patient with a ten year course of the disease, which was characterized by non-ulcerous dyspeptic symptoms in its early phase. The patient was treated successfully by antrectomy. The morphologic findings in the biopsy material ten to eight years before the operation corresponded with those of gastritis type C. The highly characteristic morphologic findings of sinusoidal capillary ectasia and multiple vascular thromboses appeared only in later biopsies taken during the work-up for iron deficiency anemia. The cause of the mucosal alterations was an acquired submucosal vascular anomaly (malformation).