Gastritis, an inflammatory disease of the gastric mucosa, every year is manifested in an increasing number of people. Its main cause is a violation of the acid-forming function of the digestive organ both in the direction of increasing the secretion of the gastric enzyme and in the lowering.
Those forms of this disease, which are based on a decrease in acidity are considered the most dangerous, because they lead to atrophy( death) of glandular cells, that is, they are a precancerous condition of the body of a sick person. If you do not pay proper attention to their treatment, then the patient becomes inevitable death.
Symptoms of gastritis with intestinal metaplasia and the causes of
To avoid neglecting such a gastric pathology as gastritis with intestinal metaplasia, it is necessary to clearly understand the symptoms of this disease, as well as the causes of its occurrence.
This change in the epithelial layer of the stomach can develop due to a number of the following reasons:
- All sorts of irritating factors acting on the stomach and leading to a decrease in its acidity, and, accordingly, the death of the glandular cells of its epithelium;
- Inflammatory processes occurring in the mucous membrane of the stomach;
- Chronic gastritis or esophagitis;
- Gastroesophageal reflux disease;
- Frequent stressful conditions.
All these causes lead to the formation of a pathology in the digestive organ, accompanied by a decrease or complete cessation of gastric juice production of the acidic enzyme necessary for digesting food, and as a result of the dying out of the glandular cells and the formation of epithelial intestinal tissue in their place. That is, flowing in the mucous process of metaplasia.
Symptoms of chronic gastritis with intestinal metaplasia are very diverse and completely similar to those that occur in inflammatory processes occurring in the stomach due to a decrease in the secretory function.
Probably, therefore, many do not pay attention to them or are engaged in self-treatment aimed at removing the main symptoms. This is strictly forbidden, because in this case, the disease is removed only external signs, and the pathology itself continues to progress, giving the possibility of developing more terrible diseases.
Atrophic gastritis with intestinal metaplasia
In pathologies that occur in the digestive system due to a decrease in the gastric enzyme, cells of the mucous membrane die and replace them with cells of the intestinal epithelium. This process is called intestinal metaplasia.
In gastritis with low acidity( atrophic) metaplasia is very common, especially in the elderly. It is observed in almost 100% of patients.
It is customary to distinguish two of its types - full, which resembles the epithelial tissue of the small intestine, and incomplete, corresponding to the thick. Most often, with gastritis with atrophy of glandular cells, the first type occurs.
Chronic gastritis with intestinal metaplasia
Most often, such a pathology in the digestive organ, which is represented by the replacement of the gastric epithelium by the intestinal epithelium, called the metaplasia process, occurs in the chronic course of gastritis caused by a decrease in acidity in the digestive enzyme.
This is due to the fact that because of the duration of the course of the disease and the constant change in the periods of relapses for the periods of remission, the number of glandular cells decreases more and more. As a result, a structural rearrangement in the gastric mucosa is observed. Especially occurring with this form of gastritis intestinal metaplasia is noticeable in the antrum part of the digestive organ.