The significance of serum pepsinogen levels in gastric diseases

Objective To explore the relationship of serum pepsinogen and gastric lesions through detection of the serum pepsinogen I and pepsinogen II levels. Methods Observational case-control study was adopted and 834 patients were selected in this study.The patients'diagnosis was confirmed by pathological examination of biopsy before the serum tests.The patients were divided into 6 groups:106 cases with erosive gastritis,208 cases with atrophic gastritis,102 cases with gastric ulcer,108 cases with duodenal ulcer,106 cases with gastric cancer and 204 cases with normal control.Every patient's pepsinogen I and pepsinogen II were tested by ELISA. Results The serum pepsinogen I and PGR(PGⅠ/PGⅡ) level were increased significantly in erosive gastritis group(140.71±31.51μg/L,14.06±5.01),duodenal ulcer group(145.43±34. 15μg/L,15.24±4.11) and gastric ulcer group(141.63±33.26μg/L,14.71±1.91),and were decreased significantly in atrophic gastritis group(88. 53±17. 95μg/L,7. 26±2. 51) than normal control group(124.89±33.26μg/L,11.19±4.79).And its serum level in gastric cancer group(49.76±19.52μg/L,2.76±1.21) was lower significantly than normal control group and atrophic gastritis group (P0.05).Conclusions The decreased serum pepsinogen I and PGR levels were used as an effective means of screening atrophic gastritis and gastric cancer which may help to improve the diagnostic rate of early gastric cancer.