PREVALENCE OF GASTRIC PRECURSOR LESIONS IN THE POPULATION WITHOUT PREVIOUS ENDOSCOPIC STUDY. PRELIMINARY ANALYSIS

Aims Gastric cancer (GC) is the fifth most common cancer worldwide. The purpose of this study is analyse the incidence of preneoplastic lesions (PN) in our population.

Fig. 1 Scatter diagram representing the OLGIM stage with respect to age (p = 0.002).

Methods This is a cross-sectional study, we have included patients referred to the endoscopy unit for gastroscopy. Exclusion criteria were: treatment with proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) or antibiotics, surveillance of PN and prior investigation and/or treatment of H.Pylori (HP). Biopsies were taken according to Sydney protocol. In each biopsy the presence of H. pylori, non-atrophic gastritis, atrophic gastritis, intestinal metaplasia, dysplasia or gastric cancer was determined. To evaluate the histological inflammation we used the Operative-Link on Gastritis-Assessment (OLGA) and the Operative-Link on Gastric-Intestinal Metaplasia (OLGIM).

Results We included 100 patients. 61% were women, aged between 17 and 86 years (mean 52±17 SD). The indication of gastroscopy was: dyspepsia (64%), vitamin B12 deficiency (19%), iron deficiency anemia (13%), ulcerous disease (4%). Smoking habit: no smokers (67%); smokers (19%) and former smokers: 14%. HP is present in the antral gastric mucosa in 31% of patients. We don’t find relationship between OLGIM or OLGA stage and gender, smoking habit and HP.

Table 1 The OLGA and OLGIM stages incidence in our population.

	OLGA	OLGIM
Stage 0	69%	88%
Stage 1	20%	0
Stage 2	10%	5%
Stage 3	1%	5%
Stage 4	0	2%

Conclusions –The incidence of gastric precursor lesions is low in our population.

–The severity according to the OLGIM classification increases significantly with age. According to these results gastroscopy in the young population could be avoidable, at least in dyspepsia.

Publication History

Article published online:
14 April 2022