1. Introduction
Gastritis is the injury to the mucosal lining of the stomach, which is manifested in the form of an inflammatory process accompanied by damage to the mucus-lined barrier that protects the mucosal wall. Even though the cause of gastritis is undetermined in most cases, the only well-known etiology is infection caused by H. pylori [1]. Other causes that may be listed are drugs such as NSAID, excessive alcohol use, auto-immune diseases, parasitic infestations, viral infections, granulomatous diseases such as Crohn’s disease, sarcoidosis, stress (trauma, burns, major injury) and malnutrition. During upper endoscopy, findings of gastritis may include erythema, mucosal erosions, the absence of rugal folds and the presence of visible vessels; however, none of these features are diagnostic for gastritis. Other than the classical classification of gastritis into acute and chronic, further classifications have been proposed: OLGA (Operative Link for Gastritis Assessment) and OLGIM (Operative Link on Gastric Intestinal Metaplasia Assessment) are exclusively used for identifying and assessing patients with chronic atrophic gastritis and intestinal metaplasia, respectively, who are at higher risk of developing gastric cancer [1,2,3,4]. The degrees of atrophy and metaplasia are directly proportional to the risk of developing gastric cancer.
Pain is described as a highly unpleasant physical sensation that may be caused by illness or injury. In the case of gastritis, pain is the most common symptom and the initial clinical manifestation. Since gastritis, by definition, is an inflammatory process of the mucosal layer of the stomach, we expect a reflection of this process in the circulating inflammatory parameters in the blood stream. Epigastric pain, which may be accompanied by mild signs of inflammation, is the initial and possibly the only symptom of gastritis. To the best of our knowledge, no prior study has been conducted which has focused on the possible association between pain as a subjective tool and histopathological findings in patients with gastritis. Currently, the only way to measure patients’ pain is by subjective assessment; this subjectivity causes a problem, because patients may rank the same pain differently, thus producing different results. Good communication between the patient and the investigator may decrease the subjectivity issue. Gender, race and the state of consciousness may affect the outcome of pain assessment. In the current study, a standard questionnaire...
; Daldal, Emin