A 72-year-old female referred to our hospital because of upper abdominal pain on Septenber 27, 1997. She had been suffered from Rheumatoid arthritis during recent two years, and was treated with NSAIDs, immunosuppresive agents. Endoscopic examination revealed multiple erosions on the lesser curverture aspect of the antrum. Endoscopic ultrasonography revealed small aechoic lesions in the submucosa. After the biopsy of a erosion, a small cyst appeared. In spite of treatment with PPI, her multiple erosions were not cured. On endoscopic examination one month and one year later, the same findings were found on biopsy.
Gastric submucosal cysts are rare disease. Many cases of gastric cyst were diagnosed by operated specimens with gastric cancer. In this case, it seemed that, this gastric cyst was caused by chronic inflammation. Because many inflammatory cells were found in the gastric mucosa and submucosa with thickned muscularis mucosae. We thought that this case was valuable one, because it was dificult to detect gastric submucosal cysts that were diagnosed without operation on literature.
