Agreement between endoscopic and histological gastric atrophy scores

Background. This study was conducted to investigate the strength of agreement between the endoscopic atrophic border (EAB) and the histological score for atrophy. Methods. A series of 298 dyspeptic Japanese patients underwent upper endoscopy. The grade of gastric atrophy was estimated according to the EAB. Antral and corpus biopsy specimens were taken and were evaluated serniquantitatively according to the updated Sydney classification system, including the score for atrophy. The StatExact software package was used to calculate the weighted kappa statistics. Results. The strength of agreement between the endoscopic atrophy score (EAB) and the histological atrophy score was good, with a weighted kappa value of 0.51 (95% confidence interval, 0.44-0.59). Conclusions. The strength of agreement between the endoscopic and histological atrophy scores is not worse than the interobserver histological agreement between two pathologists. It is worthwhile to carry out further research on the use of the EAB to identify and score gastric atrophy.