[Corpus gastritis -- Helicobacter pylori -- gastrin]

Corpus gastritis is a common diagnosis. Studies have shown that about 25% of patients that undergo gastroscopy receive this diagnosis. This study was undertaken to investigate etiological associations in patients with corpus gastritis in our northern Icelandic population.

Patients who had had a histological diagnosis of chronic corpus gastritis between the years of 1994 to 1998 were retrieved from the computer files of the department of pathology. In all 172 patients fulfilled the Sydney pathological criteria. Pathology review was performed by the same pathologist. Blood samples were also taken for variable serology and a urea breath test for Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) was performed.

Mean age 71 year old (24-99 year). Males were 57%. H. pylori infection was diagnosed in 39%. There appears to be a relationship between active gastritis and H. pylori positivity, especially if there was only chronic gastritis without atrophy or metaplasia. Atrophy was significantly greater if anti-parietal antibody was present. No connections were found between anti-parietal antibody and anti-microsomal antibody. There was significantly higher mean gastrin levels in patients with atrophy or metaplasia compared with only chronic gastritis (p<0.05), present also in patients with chronic gastritis vs active gastritis (p<0.01). There was no difference in mean gastrin levels between H. pylori positive and H. pylori negative patients. Significantly higher mean gastrin levels were seen in patients with anti-parietal antibody (p<0.001). No difference was found in mean gastrin levels between patients with or with out antimicrosomal antibody.

There is a high probability that corpus gastritis and related complications are related to H. pylori infection in a large proportion of our population. Serum gastrin may well be a predictor of the histological grading of the chronic gastritis. We did not see a relationship with antimicrosomal activity.