Ten-year prospective follow-up of histological changes at five points on the gastric mucosa as recommended by the updated Sydney system after Helicobacter pylori eradication.

BACKGROUND

Atrophic gastritis and intestinal metaplasia (IM) are well known as precancerous lesions of gastric cancer. The present study evaluated the gastric mucosa for 10 years after H. pylori eradication at five points of the stomach as recommended by the updated Sydney system to clarify the relationship between H. pylori eradication and gastric cancer prevention.

METHODS

Among the comprised 373 patients, 323 were H. pylori-positive while 50 patients were H. pylori-negative. Patients with successful eradication underwent follow-up endoscopic examination every year. Biopsy specimens were taken from five points of the stomach, as recommended by the updated Sydney system, and were evaluated for the degree of gastritis prospectively.

RESULTS

Two hundred ninety-four out of the 323 H. pylori-positive patients successfully achieved eradication. Of the 197 patients on whom five-point biopsy was performed, the courses of 30 patients were able to be observed every year for 10 years after successful eradication. Inflammation, activity, and atrophy score at all five points were significantly reduced half a year to 6 years after eradication. IM scores fluctuated intensely up and down during all observation periods; however, IM score of the lesser curvature of the corpus continued decreasing gradually and showed a significant decrease 6 years after (0.97 ± 0.09 to 0.42 ± 0.17, P < 0.05).

CONCLUSION

In 10 years after H. pylori eradication, atrophy at all sites and IM in the lesser curvature of the corpus gradually and significantly decreased. These results suggest that the improvement of gastric atrophy and IM might have association with the reduction of gastric cancer occurrence.