Gastric Metaplasia Changes After 8 Years Of Helicobacter Pylori Eradication In A Blind Randomized Study.

Background: Pepsinogen I or Pepsinogen ratio (I1II) have been validated as serologic markers for diagnosis of atrophic gastritis which may preceed gastric cancer.A pepsinogen ratio < 3.5 can be regarded as non-invasive gold standard for diagnosis of atrophy as previously shown by most studies.However values of pepsinogen I defining gastric atrophy vary widely between < 25 to < 70 ng/ml depending on population, assay, age, sex, smoking, protonpump-inhibitor cotherapy.Aims: To compare radioimmunoassay (RIA) with a new enzymeimmunoassay (ELISA).Methods: Sera from 232 H.pylori positive patients were obtained.An ELISA method (Gastroset POI, Orion, Espoo, Finland) and a RIA method (PEPSI-I and -II, DiaSorin, Saluccia, Italy) were used according to manufacturer's instructions.In the case of values above the upper calibration limit measurements after dilution of sera were repeated.A pepsinogen ratio below 3.5 or pepsinogen I values < 40 ng/ml (RIA and ELISA) were chosen for the purpose of this study in defining atrophy.Results: Correlation between RIA and ELISA for pepsinogen I was r=0.704, p