Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers & Prevention, Vol 2, Issue 2 119-123, Copyright © 1993 by American Association for Cancer Research

ARTICLES

Serum anti-Helicobacter pylori IgG antibodies and pepsinogens A and C as serological markers of chronic atrophic gastritis

F Sitas, R Smallwood, D Jewell, PR Millard, DG Newell, SG Meuwissen, S Moses, A Zwiers and D Forman
Cancer Epidemiology Unit, Imperial Cancer Research Fund, Oxford, England.

This study was designed to test the sensitivity and specificity of serum anti-Helicobacter pylori IgG antibodies and the ratio of serum pepsinogen A to pepsinogen C (PGA:PGC) in detecting chronic atrophic gastritis (CAG) and intestinal metaplasia. Parallel gastric biopsies and a serum sample were collected from a series of 87 patients aged 20-69 years attending a routine upper endoscopy clinic. The seroprevalence (> 10 micrograms IgG/ml) of anti-H. pylori antibodies was 42.7%, and of a low PGA:PGC ratio (< 1.5) was 17.7%. A positive H. pylori IgG antibody level was more sensitive than the level of PGA:PGC in diagnosing CAG (71.4% and 25.0%, respectively), moderate CAG (86.7% and 26.7%, respectively), and intestinal metaplasia (90.9% and 50.0%, respectively). Anti-H. pylori IgG antibody levels were less specific than PGA:PGC levels in diagnosing CAG (90.9% and 93.9%, respectively), moderate CAG (78.3% and 89.1%, respectively), and intestinal metaplasia (72.6% and 92.2%, respectively). A combination of anti-H. pylori antibodies and a low PGA:PGC ratio for the detection of CAG resulted in a specificity of 100%, but the sensitivity was 21.4%.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				C. Ley, A. Mohar, J. Guarner, R. Herrera-Goepfert, L. S. Figueroa, D. Halperin, and J. Parsonnet Screening Markers for Chronic Atrophic Gastritis in Chiapas, Mexico Cancer Epidemiol. Biomarkers Prev., February 1, 2001; 10(2): 107 - 112. [Abstract] [Full Text]

				F Kitahara, K Kobayashi, T Sato, Y Kojima, T Araki, and M A Fujino Accuracy of screening for gastric cancer using serum pepsinogen concentrations Gut, May 1, 1999; 44(5): 693 - 697. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]