title: Serum pepsinogen I elevation in cigarette smokers.
abstract: We measured serum pepsinogen I (sPG-I) in 269 patients undergoing upper GI endoscopy and then classified by endoscopic diagnosis, gastric mucosal histology, and smoking habit. Both ulcer-free and duodenal ulcer smokers had significantly higher sPG-I levels than their non-smoking controls. In contrast, sPG-I values were not different in smokers and non-smokers with gastric ulcer. In ulcer-free smokers the overall increase in sPG-I simply reflected the high prevalence of patients with superficial gastritis and elevated sPG-I levels. Conversely, in duodenal ulcer smokers the increase in sPG-I, which was related to the number of cigarettes smoked daily, was not an epiphenomenon of concomitant gastritis. The smoking-induced increase in sPG-I in duodenal ulcer is proposed to reflect an augmented pepsin secretory capacity, which can be of aetiologic significance in the association between cigarette smoking and duodenal ulcer.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Internal Medicine, University of Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Malesci
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Basilico
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bersani
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bonato
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Ballarin
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Ronchi
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D004381:Duodenal Ulcer / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology; D004415:Dyspepsia / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology; D005260:Female; D005753:Gastric Mucosa / Q000473:pathology; D005773:Gastroscopy; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010435:Pepsinogens / Q000097:blood*; D012907:Smoking / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000097:blood*; D013276:Stomach Ulcer / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology
chemical_list: D010435:Pepsinogens