Collagenous gastritis: Epidemiology and clinical associations

Background: the rare occurrence of collagenous gastritis (CG) makes its epidemiology difficult to investigate. We designed a study to determine the demographic and clinical characteristics as well as the associations of CG with other upper gastrointestinal diseases in a large national clinicopathological database. Methods: from the IDEA database we extracted all patients with histopathologically documented CG and, in a case-control study, we compared 168 subjects with and 1,286,165 subjects without CG using odds ratios (OR) with their 95% confidence intervals (CI). Results: the prevalence of CG was 13 per 10 0,0 0 0 EGDs. CG was significantly more common among female than male patients (OR: 1.69, 95% CI: 1.20-2.39) and was characterized by a bi-modal age distribution (first peak in patients aged 10-19, second peak primarily in females aged > 60 years). CG patients presented with diarrhea (18%), anemia (12%), weight loss (11%), and vomiting (10%). CG was significantly associated with other lymphocytic disorders of the upper gastrointestinal tract, including celiac sprue (2.12, 1.55-2.88), duodenal intraepithelial lymphocytosis (3.71, 2.30-5.98), and lymphocytic gastritis (23.2, 10.9-49.5). CG persisted in 69% of patients who underwent multiple consecutive endoscopies. Conclusions: the epidemiologic features of collagenous gastritis reflect on different etiologies contributing to its occurrence in children and adults. (c) 2021 Editrice Gastroenterologica Italiana S.r.l. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

The rare occurrence of collagenous gastritis poses challenges in investigating its epidemiological features. This study revealed that CG is more common in female patients, exhibits a bimodal age distribution, and has significant associations with other lymphocytic disorders. Patients with CG typically present with symptoms such as diarrhea and anemia.