Korean J Intern Med.  2016 Sep;31(5):835-844. 10.3904/kjim.2016.166.

Endoscopic gastritis, serum pepsinogen assay, and Helicobacter pylori infection

Affiliations
  • 1Department of Internal Medicine, Konkuk University School of Medicine, Seoul, Korea. sunyoung@kuh.ac.kr

Abstract

Endoscopic findings of the background gastric mucosa are important in the Helicobacter pylori-seroprevalent population. It is strongly correlated not only with the risk of gastric cancer, but also with the excretion ability of gastric mucosa cells. In noninfected subjects, common endoscopic findings are regular arrangement of collecting venules, chronic superficial gastritis, and erosive gastritis. In cases of active H. pylori infection, nodularity on the antrum, hemorrhagic spots on the fundus, and thickened gastric folds are common endoscopic findings. The secreting ability of the gastric mucosa cells is usually intact in both noninfected and actively infected stomachs, and the intragastric condition becomes hyperacidic upon inflammation. Increased serum pepsinogen II concentration correlates well with active H. pylori infection, and also indicates an increased risk of diffuse-type gastric cancer. In chronic inactive H. pylori infection, metaplastic gastritis and atrophic gastritis extending from the antrum (closed-type chronic atrophic gastritis) toward the corpus (open-type chronic atrophic gastritis) are common endoscopic findings. The intragastric environment is hypoacidic and the risk of intestinal-type gastric cancer is increased in such conditions. Furthermore, there is a decrease in serum pepsinogen I concentration when the secreting ability of the gastric mucosa cells is damaged. Serologic and endoscopic changes that occur upon H. pylori infection are important findings for estimating the secreting ability of the gastric mucosa cells, and could be applied for the secondary prevention of gastric cancer.

Keyword

Atrophy; Gastritis; Endoscopy; Helicobacter pylori; Pepsinogens

MeSH Terms

Atrophy
Endoscopy
Gastric Mucosa
Gastritis*
Gastritis, Atrophic
Helicobacter pylori*
Helicobacter*
Inflammation
Pepsinogen A*
Pepsinogen C
Pepsinogens
Secondary Prevention
Stomach
Stomach Neoplasms
Venules
Pepsinogen A
Pepsinogen C
Pepsinogens
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