Fifteen thousand and twenty-three gastric biopsies from 11,085 patients at a hospital in Northeastern Italy were taken between January of 1986 and December of 1991, and evaluated for the relationship of giardia lamblia and other associated
gastrointestinal factors. Forty-one patients (.37%) of the population had gastric giardiasis. The patients all had undergone
upper gastrointestinal endoscopy because of dyspepsia, epigastric pain, or abdominal distention.
It is noted that only 2 patients had diarrhea at the time of the biopsy. Gastric giardiasis was associated with chronic atrophic gastritis. Of the 41 patients with gastric giardiasis, 32 had intestinal metaplasia of the gastric mucosa and 37 had helicobacter pylori infection. The authors conclude that the association between gastric giardiasis and chronic atrophic gastritis shows that a decreased gastric acidity is a prerequisite for the localization of giardia lamblia and the gastrointestinal mucosa.
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