title: Development of Barrett's esophagus after 'spontaneous' healing of atrophic corpus gastritis.
abstract: We report here the case of a 58-year-old asymptomatic male smoker who had a gastroscopy performed in 1990 because of a low serum pepsinogen I level (16 microg/l). The patient had severe atrophic corpus gastritis and elevated Helicobacter pylori antibody titers, but no histologic evidence of the bacteria. Additionally, a hiatal hernia without esophagitis was seen. He was followed up endoscopically because of the atypical changes (indefinite for dysplasia) in addition to atrophic gastritis in some of the gastric biopsy samples. During the follow-up period, H. pylori antibody titers declined to normal levels without eradication therapy, and atrophic gastritis healed. The patient developed first erosive esophagitis, and, 5 years later, a 3-cm-long Barrett's esophagus was detected.
authors: Department of Surgery, Helsinki University Central Hospital, Helsinki, Finland.
authors: Arto
authors: A
authors: Kokkola
authors: Pentti
authors: P
authors: Sipponen
authors: Reijo
authors: R
authors: Haapiainen
authors: Hilpi
authors: H
authors: Rautelin
authors: Marja-Liisa
authors: ML
authors: Karjalainen-Lindsberg
authors: Pauli
authors: P
authors: Puolakkainen
mesh_terms: D001471:Barrett Esophagus / Q000473:pathology*; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D005757:Gastritis, Atrophic / Q000382:microbiology / Q000473:pathology*; D016481:Helicobacter Infections / Q000473:pathology*; D016480:Helicobacter pylori; D006551:Hernia, Hiatal / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012075:Remission, Spontaneous