**2.4 Differentiation criteria in the diagnosis of MALT-lymphoma of the stomach and morphologically similar lesions**

### *2.4.1 Reactive lymphoid infiltrations of the stomach*

The study was performed in gastrobiopsies from 23 cases aged 18 to 85 years, mean age was 53.47 years. More than half (56.52%) of the gastrobiopsies demonstrated mucosal defects of different severity: from surface erosion to ulcer. All 23 cases had signs of active chronic inflammation, mainly of moderate or severe degree (39.13 and 56.52% respectively). Twenty two (95.65%) cases presented with *Helicobacter pylori* in mucosa or in gland lumens on epithelial surface, the degree of contamination correlating with inflammation activity.

#### *2.4.1.1 Tumor cell size*

Lymphoid cells of the studied infiltrates were predominantly small (86.96%). There were no infiltrations consisting of medium-sized cells among the cases studied.
