Helicobacter pylori infection and fasting serum gastrin levels in a series of endoscopically diagnosed gastric polyps

The occurrence of H. pylori infection and the levels of fasting serum gastrin (SEGA) were examined in 97 patients with different morphological types of endoscopically diagnosed gastric polyps. According to the histology of the polyps the series was divided into three groups: inflammatory polyps (43 cases), polyps with foveolar hyperplasia (25 cases), and hyperplastic polyps including adenomas (29 cases). The prevalence of H. pylori infection was significantly lower in patients with hyperplastic polyps (45%) and foveolar hyperplasia (48%) than in the group with inflammatory polyps (81%). SEGA levels were higher in patients with hyperplastic polyps (mean±sd: 335±298 pmol/l) and foveolar hyperplasia (183±216) than in patients with inflammatory polyps (89±127). Signs of so-called “autoimmune” gastritis, i.e. corpus atrophy and presence of parietal cell antibodies, were commonly found in patients with hyperplastic polyps and foveolar hyperplasia, but rarely in patients with inflammatory polyps. These results suggest that the polyps with hyperplastic changes (hyperplastic polyps and foveolar hyperplasia) are in some of the cases closely related to autoimmune gastritis. The presence of corpus atrophy, hypoacidity and various types of metaplasia, which characterizes autoimmune gastritis, could explain the low prevalence of H. pylori and the high SEGA levels found in these patients.