Nonspecific Granulomatous Disease of the Stomach

Abstract

Introduction Chronic granulomatous inflammation¹is a process initiated usually by a group of harmful agents which bring into defensive activity a specialized cellular mechanism-the reticuloendothelial system. The basic lesion, a granuloma in typical cases, contains at the periphery concentric reticular fibers, while the center is occupied by epithelioid cells, with or without giant cells. Such granulomata have been found in a variety of infections, such as tuberculosis,²syphilis,³and cat-scratch fever.⁴Similar granulomata have been noted in sarcoidosis,^5,6in chronic ulcerative colitis, and in regional enteritis, diseases currently considered nonspecific, in view of lack of knowledge of their etiology. Granulomata are found in berylliosis,⁷in silicosis,⁸and in other conditions when foreign bodies have some into intimate contact with living tissue. Granulomata have been observed also as part of a local tissue response in hypersensitivity reactions produced in the experimental animal with specific