Background: Gastric cancer and gastric precancerous lesions are highly prevalent\nin China. However, prevalence of the different precancerous lesions has not\nbeen reported from the north-east region of China. Detection of precancerous\ngastric lesions at an early stage complemented with a follow-up strategy for high\nrisk groups would probably aid in declining the mortality rate in patients with\ngastric cancer. Helicobacter pylori infection, salt intake, smoking, alcohol, family\nhistory of gastric cancer, atrophic gastritis and intestinal metaplasia are established\nrisk factors of gastric cancer. The aim of this study was to evaluate the\nfrequency of various histopathological phenotypes among atrophic gastritis patients\nin this region and to report if gender and increasing age carry risk in the\ndevelopment of these lesions. Methods: This retrospective study was conducted\non 518 patients with endoscopic diagnosis of atrophic gastritis. Using the patient\nnumber in database, histopathological diagnosis of the biopsy specimen of\nall patients was recorded. All biopsy specimens were assessed for the presence of\ninflammation, atrophic gastritis, metaplasia and/or dysplasia. Results: Intestinal\nmetaplasia was observed in 67.38% of patients. Dysplasia and atrophy were\npresent in 9.46% and 3.67% patients, respectively. Gender and increasing age\nwere not found to be risk factors for intestinal metaplasia, dysplasia and atrophic\ngastritis (p-values 0.08, 0.43, 0.297 and 0.98, 0.20, 0.54; respectively). 19.49%\nsubjects showed inflammatory activity which was significantly associated with\nfemale gender (P = 0.0008). Conclusion: Intestinal metaplasia was the most\nhistopathological phenotype among endoscopically diagnosed atrophic gastritis\npatients. Large-population based on prospective studies should be designed to\ndetermine prevalence of precancerous lesions and the risk factors involved in the progression of these lesions in our region.
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