Gastric Histology and Its Relation to Anaemia in the Elderly

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Abstract
For 1 yr, 725 consecutive patients admitted to a geriatric unit were investigated for anemia. Of the men, 51% had Hb levels below 13.5 g/dl and 41% of the women had levels below 12 g/dl. Patients (657) had an azuresin tubeless test meal following an augmented dose of histamine acid phosphate and 450 (68%) had achlorhydria. Gastric biopsies were performed on 240 of the patients with achlorhydria and 201 satisfactory biopsies were obtained. These were graded into 5 categories: normal; surface gastritis; diffuse gastritis; chronic atrophic gastritis, and chronic atrophic gastritis with intestinal metaplasia. The grades of mucosal change could not be correlated with the presence or absence of anemia, the state of gastric function as measured by the Schilling test for absorption of vitamin B12, or the level of vitamin B12 in the serum.
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