Aim.The clinical guidelines are intended to supplement specialty decision-making for improved aid quality in patients with gastritis and duodenitis though acknowledging the latest clinical evidence and principles of evidencebased medicine.Key points.Gastritis is an inflammatory disease of stomach mucosa, with a separate definition of acute and chronic gastritis. Chronic gastritis is a cohort of chronic diseases uniting a typical morphology of persistent inflammatory infiltration, impaired cellular renewal with emergent intestinal metaplasia, atrophy and epithelial dysplasia of gastric mucosa. Oesophagogastroduodenoscopy (OGDS) or high-resolution OGDS with magnified or non-magnified virtual chromoendoscopy, including targeted biopsy for atrophy and intestinal metaplasia grading and neoplasia detection, are recommended to verify gastritis and duodenitis, precancer states and/or gastric mucosal changes. All chronic gastritis patients positive for H. рylori should undergo eradication therapy as aetiological and subsidiary for gastric cancer prevention. Chronic gastritis patients with symptoms of dyspepsia (epigastric pain, burning and congestion, early satiety), also combined with functional dyspepsia, are recommended proton pump inhibitors, prokinetics, rebamipide and bismuth tripotassium dicitrate in symptomatic treatment. With focal restricted intestinal metaplasia, follow-up is not required in most cases, mainly when advanced atrophic gastritis is ruled out in high-quality endoscopy with biopsy. However, a familial history of gastric cancer, incomplete intestinal metaplasia and persistent H. pylori infection render endoscopy monitoring with chromoendoscopy and targeted biopsy desirable once in three years. Patients with advanced atrophic gastritis should have high-quality endoscopy every 3 years, and once in 1–2 years if complicated with a familial history of gastric cancer.Conclusion.The recommendations condense current knowledge on the aetiology and pathogenesis of gastritis and duodenitis, as well as laboratory and instrumental diagnostic techniques, main approaches to aetiological H. pylori eradication and treatment of dyspeptic states.

Objective Ileocolonoscopy allows early detection of recurrence after surgical resection for Crohn’s disease (CD). Plexitis in the proximal surgical margin, defined as presence of inflammatory cells in or around enteric ganglia or nerve bundles, has been associated with an increased overall recurrence risk. We investigated prospectively whether plexitis can predict endoscopic recurrence (ER) in a consecutive cohort of CD patients undergoing ileocolic resection. Design All CD patients undergoing ileocolic resection in our institution between October 2009 and December 2012 were eligible for this study. Clinical data were obtained prospectively from the patients’ files, and biopsies from the proximal surgical margins were analysed immunohistochemically for inflammation at the myenteric and submucosal plexus (lymphocytes, mast cells, eosinophils). The degree of plexitis was correlated with the presence of ER at 6 months, defined as a modified Rutgeerts’ score of ≥i2b. Multivariate models were developed and tested to predict posterior probability of ER. Results Seventy-four patients were included. Six months after ileocolic resection, 50% showed ER. Known risk factors such as penetrating disease, previous resections and active smoking, showed no relation with ER. On the other hand, submucosal lymphocytic plexitis was associated with ER ( P =0.020). The predictive value of lymphocytic cell count increased with more extensive biopsy sampling and with application of immunohistochemistry. Conclusion Submucosal lymphocytic plexitis in the proximal surgical margin was significantly related with a higher risk for ER after ileocolic resection. These data support development of a postoperative prevention trial with vedolizumab, which may block lymphocytic trafficking in the postoperative bowel.

Background/Aim: To investigate the geographic occurrence of mucosa-invading Fusobacteria in acute appendicitis. Patients and Methods: Carnoy- and formalin-fixated appendices from Germany, Russia, and China were comparatively investigated. Bacteria were detected using fluorescent in situ hybridization. Cecal biopsies from patients with inflammatory bowel disease and other conditions were used as disease controls. Results: Fusobacteria represented mainly by Fusobacterium nucleatum were the major invasive component in bacterial infiltrates in acute appendicitis but were completely absent in controls. The occurrence of invasive Fusobacteria in Germany, Russia, and China was the same. The detection rate in Carnoy-fixated material was 70-71% and in formalin-fixated material was 30-36%. Conclusions: Acute appendicitis is a polymicrobial infectious disease in which F. nucleatum and other Fusobacteria play a key role.

Autopsy data from 80 patients who died of the COVID-19 infection were analysed. Using macro- and microscopic studies, specific features of pathological processes in various organs were identified. The obtained experimental data, along with information from literature sources, allowed conclusions to be drawn about the mechanisms of damaging internal organs and body systems, as well as assumptions to be made about individual links in the pathogenesis of COVID-19. The thanatogenesis of the disease and the main causes of death are discussed, including acute cardiopulmonary failure, acute renal failure, pulmonary thromboembolism, shock involving multiple organ failure and sepsis. The critical importance of autopsy is emphasized, which provides valuable information on the morphological substrate for this infection closely associated with possible clinical manifestations.