Abstract
The PG method together with the Hp test is used for the screening of gastric cancer. In the fully comprehensive medical checkup at our hospital, an endoscopy or X-ray test is performed as a screening test for gastric cancer. Recently, the number of patients that prefer to undergo endoscopy is increasing, and it is necessary to narrow down the patients undergoing endoscopy to those at risk of gastric cancer. Therefore, we examined whether PG levels can be used to predict patients with gastric mucosa atrophy, using actual cases of endoscopic atrophy.
Patients with a history of Hp eradication, those who are treated with gastric secretion inhibitors, and those who had undergone gastric resection were excluded, and 476 patients who were urine-Hp-antibody negative and 763 patients who were urine-Hp-antibody positive were included to examine the association between PG values and endoscopic atrophy. While endoscopic atrophy was not confirmed in 86.6% of the Hp-antibody negative patients, the remaining 13.4% of the patients had atrophy at C2 or above; some of them had a severe atrophy. A total of 95.2% of the patients with atrophy showed a PG I of 40 or lower, or a PG I/II ratio of 4 or lower, which we regarded as criteria for suspected atrophy. Evaluation of Hp-antibody-positive patients revealed that those who were PG positive by a conventional method had severe atrophy of O1-O3. By using our criteria to identify patients with atrophy of C2 or above, 81.5% of the patients with atrophy were identified.
