The Classification of Gastritis

Abstract

Until recently the histological diagnosis of gastritis was of little relevance for gastroenterologists or patients. Whether the inflammation was superficial or “atrophic” or with or without intestinal metaplasia had no real meaning. This attitude toward gastric histology changed dramatically when it became apparent that over 75% of all histological gastritis cases could be attributed to infection with Helicobacter pylori. Subsequent morphological studies stimulated by this discovery revealed well-recognizable differences between infectious gastritis and other forms of the gastritis process [3]. These sometimes striking morphological differences have shed new light on the pathogenesis of gastritis. Therefore, it was considered timely to propose a new classification of gastritis based on these new observations.

Proposal of the German Society of Pathologists