Is gastric mapping needed in the endoscopy of dyspeptic patients?

AIM: Our study aimed to determine the prevalence of intestinal metaplasia in dyspeptic patients who underwent upper GI endoscopy. BACKGROUND: Intestinal metaplasia, which is defined as the replacement of normal gastric mucosa by metaplastic intestinal epithelium, has been described as a premalignant gastric lesion. METHODS: Six hundred two consecutive patients with dyspeptic symptoms who had undergone upper GI endoscopy were included in the study. For all patients, gastric mapping was performed to determine the presence of intestinal metaplasia. All histologic samples were reported according to the updated Sydney classification. RESULTS: Total of 61.3% of the patients were female. The mean age of the patients was 46±15 years. The overall prevalence of intestinal metaplasia was 22%. The distribution of intestinal metaplasia in the stomach was 15.1% in the antrum, 4.3% in the body, and 2.6% in the antrum and body together. Also, the prevalence of intestinal metaplasia in the age group of under 40 years was 9.5% and in patients over 40 years it was 29.5%.. CONCLUSION: The results of this study have shown that more than one-fifth of the patients with dyspepsia have intestinal metaplasia. This indicates that gastric mapping in patients with dyspepsia may lead to the detection of precancerous lesions especially after the age of 40.