Acute Gastritis (3 of 6)

Endoscopic appearance of Acute Gastritis. The causes, natural history, and therapeutic implications of gastropathy differ from gastritis: Gastropathy is usually caused by irritants such as drugs (eg, nonsteroidal antiinflammatory agents and alcohol), bile reflux, hypovolemia, and chronic congestion. Gastritis is usually due to infectious agents (such as Helicobacter pylori) and autoimmune and hypersensitivity reactions. Most classification systems distinguish acute, short-term from chronic, long-term disease. The terms acute and chronic are also used to describe the type of inflammatory cell infiltrate. Acute inflammation is usually associated with neutrophilic infiltration, while chronic inflammation is usually characterized by mononuclear cells, chiefly lymphocytes, plasma cells and macrophages. A practical clinicopathologic framework for the classification of gastritis and gastropathy based upon these factors can be proposed.