001). We could not find any relationships between OLGA gastritis stage and sex, smoking as well as a familial history of gastric cancer. The severity of EGA significantly correlated with that of OLGA gastritis stage as presented in Table 2 check details (Spearman correlation coefficient = 0.6, P < 0.001). All of the patients with high-stage OLGA gastritis had moderate-to-severe EGA (Fisher's exact test, P < 0.001). Using moderate-to-severe EGA as the diagnostic criterion for high-stage gastritis, the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value were 100% (95% CI 75.3–100%),

57.7% (95% CI 51.5–63.7%), 10.3% (95% CI 5.6–17%), and 100% (95% CI 97.6–100%), respectively. There were 95 patients who were older than 40 years-of-age and had H. pylori infection in the present study (28 with mild EGA and 67 with moderate-to-severe EGA). In this subgroup of

patients, the positive predictive value increased to 19.4% (95% CI 10.8–30.9%). There were seven patients (2.5%) with low-grade learn more dysplasia (3 in stage I, 3 in stage III and 1 in stage IV according to the OLGA gastritis system). All the dysplastic lesions were not endoscopically visible and were detected by systemic map biopsies according to the updated Sydney system. Dysplastic lesions were frequently detected in patients with high-stage gastritis: 4/13 (30.7%) patients with high-stage gastritis versus 3/267 (1.1%) patients with low-stage gastritis (i.e. stage 0–II; Fisher’s exact test P = 0.0001; OR = 39.1; 95% CI 6.1–270.8). Dysplastic lesions were also clustered in patients with moderate-to-severe EGA: 6/126 (4.76%) with moderate-to-severe EGA versus 1/154 (0.65%) with mild EGA (Fisher’s exact test P = 0.048; OR = 7.7; 95% CI 0.9–170.9). The southern area of Vietnam, where this study was carried out, MCE公司 has

a moderate incidence of gastric cancer. The age-standardized rate per 100 000 is 16.5 in males.16 The gastritis stage of patients in the present study who were under 40 years-of-age was almost between those in the low-risk and high-risk regions.7 Therefore, the result of the present study suggests that OLGA gastritis staging parallels the gastric cancer risk in our population. However, there was a difference between our result and those from other moderate-risk regions; we found a higher proportion of patients with gastritis stage I–II and no patients with high-stage gastritis, whereas Rugge et al. reported a lower proportion of patients with stage I–II, and a few patients with high-stage gastritis in Hong Kong and Taiwan. Gastric atrophy is more severe among patients with H. pylori infection and tends to increase when the infection is prolonged.17 The present study confirmed that high-stage gastritis is significantly associated with H. pylori infection and advanced age as reported in previous studies and in other populations.8,9 It has been reported that the atrophic progression is not invariable and only appeared in a subgroup of patients with H. pylori.