Normal Biopsy Anatomy/Histology and General Changes

Abstract

As was the case with the esophagus section, the first chapter in this section on the stomach illustrates the normal components of the gastric mucosa as we encounter them in biopsy specimens. Our most common “diagnosis” in gastric biopsies is “no significant abnormality,” just as it is in the esophagus and elsewhere in the gastrointestinal tract. Indeed, one of the most important things we as pathologists can do for our patients and our clinical colleagues is to render such a diagnosis rather than to describe every minor, clinically unimportant change in our reports, as it allows entire categories of disease to be eliminated from the clinical differential diagnosis.