Screening of precancerous gastric lesions by serum pepsinogen, gastrin-17, anti-helicobacter pylori and anti-caga antibodies in dyspeptic patients over 50 years old in Guilan Province, North of Iran

Abstract

Background: The aim of this study was to investigate the value of serum gastric markers to differentiate between patients with precancerous lesions and nonatrophic chronic gastritis. Materials and Methods: Serum samples of 128 patients with dyspepsia who were candidates for endoscopic examination were tested for pepsinogen (PG I and PG II), PG I/II ratio, gastrin 17(G-17), anti-Helicobacter pylori (anti-H pylori) and anti-CagA antibodies. Two sample t-tests, chi-square tests and Pearson's correlation analyses were used for analysis using SPSS (version 20). Results: PGI, PG I/II ratio values were decreased significantly in the precancerous lesion group (0.05, 0.001 respectively). The frequency of H pylori infection was signifificantly (p=0.03) different between the two groups ofthe study. Conclusions: We suggest PGI and the PG I/II ratio as valuable markers for screening of premalignant gastric lesions.