Journal of Gastrointestinal Disorders and Liver functionJournal of Gastrointestinal Disorders and Liver functionJournal of Gastrointestinal Disorders and Liver functionJournal of Gastrointestinal Disorders and Liver function2471-0601Ommega Online PublishersNew Jersey, USA44610.15436/2471-0601.15.003Research ArticleMay Serum Tests Help in Selecting Patients for a Regastroscopy? May Serum Tests Help in Selecting Patients for a Regastroscopy? Oksanen M.Aino 1Malmi Hospital Talvelantie 6 00700 Helsinki Finland 2Biohit Oyj Laippatie 1 00880 Helsinki Finland 3Department of Medical Sciences Clinical Microbiology Uppsala University Uppsala Sweden and Department of Bacteriology and Immunology University of Helsinki Finland Editor* E-mail: aino.oksanen@hel.fi
The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
20152008201511JGDLF-15-RA-00327072015140820152015Creative Commons Attribution LicenseThis is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. nbsp Objective We have previously shown that the presence of abnormal macroscopical findings at earlier gastrocopy was among the best indicators of abnormal macroscopical findings at regastroscopy In the present study we evaluated whether serum tests could help to select patients with for regastroscopy Materials and Methods Serum H pylori antibodies of the IgG class pepsinogens I and II and gastrin -17 were analyzed for 190 patients without alarm symptoms undergoing regastroscopy For 126 patients an earlier gastroscopy report showing a normal finding was available Associations between serum tests and macroscopical and histological findings at gastroscopy were analyzed Results If patients with normal earlier gastroscopy had been selected for regastroscopy on basis of positive H pylori serology or low pepsinogen I 82 of the 126 gastroscopies performed 65 would have been saved However in that case 19 25 patients with an abnormal macroscopical finding and four of 17 patients with moderate or severe atrophic gastritis had been missed If patients had been selected for regastroscopy on the basis of positive H pylori antibodies low pepsinogen I or low serum gastrin-17 57 gastroscopies 45 had been saved but still 13 25 with an abnormal macroscopical finding and two of 17 patients with atrophic gastritis would have been missed Macroscopical findings and isolated atrophic gastritis of the antrum could not be detected by serum tests Conclusions Among typical patients in Western countries with a low prevalence of H pylori infection and atrophic gastritis usefulness of serum tests to select patients for regastroscopy is limited 10