Abstract
The subjects, consisting of 108 individuals (92 men and 16 women) who had no gastroduodenal lesions on workplace health screening, were divided into groups with or without Helicobacter pylori (H. pylon) infection, and examined for changes in the positive rate of pepsinogen (PG) test biennially for 6 years. In the anti-H. pylori antibody-positive subjects, the PG test positive rate was 13.7% at the initial examination, but increased to 29.4%, 31.4%, and 35.3% at 2, 4, and 6 years, respectively. PG test was negative in 58.8% of these subjects three times (for 4 years) and in 54.9% four times (for 6 years). On the other hand, none of the anti-H. pylori antibody-negative subjects were positive for PG test in the first 4 years, and only 1.8% were positive at 6 years. These results suggest that, in health screening by PG, subjects should be simultaneously examined for serum anti-H. pylori antibodies, that anti-H. pylori antibody-positive subjects should be tested for PG preferably at intervals of less than 4 years, and that anti-H. pylori antibody-negative subjects may be tested for PG at intervals of more than 6 years.
