Concordant occurrence of gastric and hypertensive diseases.

Epidemiologic evidence shows a strong relationship between gastric cancer and cerebrovascular disease. It was speculated that salt intake might be the linking factor causing hypertension and vascular damage as well as damage to the gastric mucosa. This study tested whether hypertensive diseases, such as ischemic heart disease and cerebrovascular disease, occurred more frequently in patients with gastric cancer and gastric ulcer than expected by chance alone. In addition, it was studied whether gastric and duodenal ulcer coincided more frequently with other diseases that in the past have been associated with peptic ulcer, such as liver cirrhosis, chronic lung disease, and rheumatoid arthritis. The German statistics of rehabilitation were used to assess the frequency of coincidences. The statistics include a description of the primary, secondary, and tertiary diagnoses leading to rehabilitation. This study confirms the presence of a high coincidence of both ulcer types with liver cirrhosis. In patients with rheumatoid arthritis, both ulcer types also occurred more frequently than expected from their general distribution. Gastric but not duodenal ulcer coincided more frequently with ischemic heart disease than expected. Gastric cancer occurred more frequently in patients who had concomitant ischemic heart disease or cerebrovascular disease. Duodenal ulcer was not associated with an increased risk for any disease related to hypertension. The results of the study support the contention that gastric diseases and diseases related to hypertension share a common etiologic factor.