Significance of Alcian blue staining

Gastric cancer and other premalignant lesions constitute a high percentage of morbidity and mortality worldwide, especially in developing countries. The objective was to determine the efficacy of the Alcian Blue method in premalignant lesions from gastric biopsies of patients treated at the University Hospital of Guayaquil in 2012. In order to establish an early and accurate diagnosis and reduce its prevalence, 300 patients with a presumptive diagnosis of gastric cancer and / or premalignant lesions were selected for the research and the Alcian blue staining technique was applied. As a result, we obtained 105 samples with a confirmed diagnosis of complete and incomplete intestinal metaplasia with complete intestinal metaplasia from 14 patients and with incomplete intestinal metaplasia from 63 patients. In conclusion, pre-malignant gastric metaplastic lesions are more frequent in patients between 30 and 80 years of age, with a higher prevalence among patients between 40 and 49 years of age.