Gastritis and duodenitis--a clinical, endoscopic and histological study and review of the literature.

A clinical, endoscopic and histological study of gastritis and duodenitis was carried out in 50 patients. The endoscopic diagnosis of mucosal inflammation was found to be highly reproducible. However there was poor correlation between endoscopic and histological diagnoses of gastritis or duodenitis. Neither endoscopic nor histological gastritis or duodenitis correlated with symptoms. These findings are in agreement with others reported in the literature. Gastritis and duodenitis should not be diagnosed by history alone but only by endoscopy or histology. When gastritis or duodenitis is the only pathology demonstrated only symptomatic therapy should be given. The literature on the diagnosis and aetiology of gastritis as well as that of specific varieties of gastritis is reviewed.