Incidence of Intestinal Metaplasia and Dysplasia in Patients of Infectious and Non-infectious Chronic Gastritis- A Hospital Based Study in Varanasi

Background: Chronic gastritis is defined as presence of chronic mucosal inflammatory changes leading eventually to mucosal atrophy and intestinal metaplasia. Aim: This study was carried out to know the prevalence of Intestinal Metaplasia (IM) in gastric biopsies, and to find out the association between H. pylori, Intestinal metaplasia and dysplasia and to assess the age and sex distribution of the IM in gastric biopsies. Methods: This prospective study was performed in age group of 25-65 years, attending outpatient Medicine department of Heritage Institute of Medical Sciences, Varanasi, a tertiary care Centre. A total number of 103 antral gastric biopsies were collected in Pathology department of Heritage Institute of Medical Sciences, Varanasi and examined histologically to detect intestinal metaplasia. These biopsies were stained by Giemsa to detect H. pylori organisms. Results: H. pylori was found in 47 (46%) patients (25-65 years; mean age 45.8). Intestinal metaplasia in general was found in 15 (15%) patients. Intestinal metaplasia that is associated with H. pylori seen in 10 (9.8%) patients, while intestinal metaplasia without H. pylori seen in 5 (4.9%) patients. Among intestinal metaplasia 3 cases show dysplasia (3/103 = 2.9%)  Conclusions: This study has documented mainly that the prevalence of intestinal metaplasia is significant among patients with chronic gastritis and mainly in those patients who are positive for H. pylori with an active chronic gastritis. Intestinal metaplasia mostly affects patients above the age of 40 years with no significant gender difference.