A 68 year old male presents with chronic, gnawing epigastric pain which has been getting worse over the past year. An endoscopy is performed and a representative gastric biopsy section, stained with Giemsa stain, is shown here. What organism is responsible for this patient’s symptoms?
A. Candida albicans
B. Helicobacter pylori
C. Bacillus cereus
D. Staphylococcus aureus
E. Campylobacter jejunum
The diagnosis in this case is Helicobacter pylori. Described by Warren and Marshall in 1983, Helicobacter pylori is now known to be the cause of most cases of chronic gastritis and peptic ulcer. Helicobacter is a tiny, corkscrew-shaped bacillus, and is easily missed on routine H and E-stained histologic sections. Giemsa staining, as seen in the image above, can be helpful, as can silver staining, as seen in this image:
Helicobacter does not invade the gastric mucosa, but produces its symptoms through continual stimulation of the host immune response. Treatment involves triple therapy (e.g., omeprazole, amoxicillin and clarithromycin), and prognosis is excellent. A small number of patients, however, develop gastric adenocarcinoma or MALT lymphoma.
-Kristine Krafts, MD, is an Assistant Professor of Pathology at the University of Minnesota School of Medicine and School of Dentistry and the founder of the educational website Pathology Student.
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