Non-invasive diagnosis of gastroesophageal reflux disease using gastrin- and pepsinogen-based tests

Abstract

Gastrin-17 (G-17), pepsinogen-1 (Pg1) and pepsinogen-2 (Pg2) reflect the functional state of gas-tric mucosa and are used for non-invasive diagnosis and screening of atrophic gastritis. The aimof the study was to clarify if erosive reflux disease (ERD) or non-ERD (NERD) can be distin-guished from other dyspeptic conditions in patients, in a non-invasive manner using specificbiomarkers. Levels of G-17, Pg1, and Pg2 were measured in 141 ERD patients (median age 48years, males — 68), 122 NERD patients (median age 45 years, males — 32) and 410 control pa-tients (median age 50 years, males — 97). Levels of biomarkers in ERD and NERD groups werecompared to controls. Median levels of G-17 (1.94 vs 2.92 pmol/L, p = 0.036) and Pg2 (6.70 vs7.79 μg/l,p= 0.046) were lower in the ERD group compared to control patients; no differencewith respect to the control was found for the NERD group. After exclusion of the patients havingat least one potential condition that might modify the levels of the biomarkers (gastric mucosa at-rophy, Helicobacter pylori colonisation), no difference in levels of biomarkers was observed withrespect to the control for both the ERD and NERD groups. G-17, Pg1, and Pg2 based tests can-not be used to distinguish ERD or NERD from other dyspeptic conditions in patients.