Gastritis and bacterial colonization of the gastric mucosa in adolescents.

Among 256 examined gastric biopsies from 200 adolescents, inflammatory changes were found strikingly often: 44.5% showed chronic superficial gastritis without atrophic processes. However, the percentage of biopsies of normal mucosa was substantially higher than that of a compared series of biopsies not selected according to age of the patients. According to our findings in adolescents, the interstitial stroma of normal gastric mucosa in the antrum, as well as in the corpus, was absolutely free of round cells. Bacterial colonization with Campylobacter-like organisms (CLO) occurred almost as frequently as in the series not selected according to age. Consequently, the biopsy material of adolescents substantially more often featured normal mucosa with bacterial colonization, mostly of the minimal focal variety, than did the compared series. Colonization with CLO apparently takes place at an early age, and may exacerbate into a massive colonization.