The concordance between endoscopic and histological diagnosis in 114 dogs affected by gastric disease

Endoscopy is a common, minimally invasive diagnostic technique that can be used to observe internal organs, e.g. the stomach, and to obtain mucosal bioptic samples for histo pathological examination. The aim of this study was to analyse the concordance between endoscopic and histological evaluation of gastric diseases in dogs. One hundred twenty‑nine medical records of dogs undergoing gastroscopy have been received and stored by the Veterinary Hospital of Perugia University (Perugia, Italy) between 2009‑2012. The concordance between endoscopic and histological reports of acute and chronic gastritis or gastric tumours was assessed by Cohen’s k coefficient. Considering histological diagnosis as the “gold standard”, sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), and negative predictive value (NPV) of the endoscopic report have been calculated. Frequencies of gastritis types differed between macroscopic and microscopic analyses. The evaluation of histological and endoscopic agreement was fair (0.35). Endoscopy showed sensitivity of 45%, 88%, and 100% for acute gastritis, chronic gastritis, and gastric tumours, respectively; and specificity of 84%, 71%, and 100%. The positive predictive value and NPV resulted to be 25% and 93% for acute gastritis, 93% and 60 % for chronic gastritis, 100% and 100% for gastric tumours. The results of this study show that gastric endoscopy cannot be performed as a screening exam, and that to optimise diagnosis both endoscopic and histological exam should be conducted.