Abstract
Acute gastritis is a clinical entity often encountered in daily practice, but has only vaguely been categorized on the histopathologic basis. Among the subjects complaining of sudden epigastric pain, nausea and vomiting, 27 cases were selected for this study as having acute gastritis. All patients were diagnosed after an upper GI series and endoscopic examination with gastric biopsies, which were carried out as soon as possible after the onset. Based on the findings of upper GI series and endoscopy, changes in acute gastritis were classified clinically into six types with the following histopathologic features. 1. Slight edema and hyperemia of the mucosa were observed in the edematous type of antral gastritis, showing no other characteristic change. 2. Hemorrhage, necrosis and neutrophil infiltration were the findings in the hemorrhagic erosion type antral gastritis. 3. In the early stage of the ulcer type, the histologic changes were very similar to those in the hemorrhagic erosion type in the early stage. Ulcer formation was was recognized on the 4-7th day of the onset. 4. Slight hyperemia with a small number of neutrophils as seen in the type A corpus gastritis (Raddish type), severe hemorrhage and necrosis with neutrophils were present in the type B (Erosive type with hemorrhage), and all those findings were most prominent in the type C (White coated type with erosion).
