Gastric Intestinal Metaplasia: Retrospective Epidemiological Study

Background and Aim: Gastric intestinal metaplasia is one of the pre-neoplastic lesions of gastric tissues. Helicobacter pylori (H.pylori) infection is the main risk factor of gastric intestinal metaplasia. Gastric adenocarcinoma as a high incident cancer in some regions of Iran, usually originate from intestinal metaplasia. Limited data is available about the prevalence of IM in Iran. We aimed to determine the prevalence of IM and H.pylori infection in these patients. Materials and Methods: This retrospective epidemiological study has been done in referral gastrointestinal laboratory in Mashhad; between March 2012 and March 2017. 11543 patients had all undergone upper esophagogastrodeodendoscopy and biopsy reports had been available. Unclear and incomplete reports excluded. Demographic information, the most frequent region of IM, H.pylori and IM prevalence were assessed in patients. All data analysed by SPSS version 18, Chi-square and T-test was performed for comparing the variables.Results: The prevalence of endoscopic IM among 11543 subjects was 15.9%. Totally 47.3% patients were male and 52.7% were female. The age range of patients with IM varies from 5 to 91 years with the mean of 55.28 ± 15.48. Independent T.test showed the significant correlation between age and IM, (P = 0.0001). The incidences of IM were 15.9% and 17.4% in women and men, respectively. By Chi-square test, there was the significant difference in male and female (p = 0.0001). By Chi-squre test, there was significant correlation between frequency of IM and regions of gastric (p = 0.0001). The most frequent region of atrophy was antrum. The prevalence of IM was not statistically higher in H.pylori infected individuals (p = 0.230). Conclusion: In our study, the overall prevalence of endoscopic IM was 15.9% and it was not statistically higher in patients with H.pylori infection. Prevalence of IM in males was significantly higher than women and it correlated to increasing age.

Keywords:

Gastric Intestinal Metaplasia , Helicobacter pylori , Prevalence