Helicobacter pylori and atrophic gastritis.

Sixty-four consecutive patients which on upper gastrointestinal endoscopy had endoscopic signs of atrophic body gastritis were investigated with standard histology examinations of gastric biopsies, serology and/or culture for Helicobacter pylori and with standard blood chemistry profile. A histologic diagnosis of atrophy could be made in only 27 of the 64 patients (42%). Of these 27 patients, 5 had the pernicious anaemia (PA) type (19%), 22 had not (81%). Past and/or present H. pylori infection was found in 16/22 non-PA patients (73%) but in none of the PA patients (p = 0.00572). The present study thus confirms earlier findings that non-PA type atrophic body gastritis is more common than the PA type and suggests that, as opposed to PA-type atrophy, it is related to H. pylori infection.