title: Clinical significance and outcome of gastric mucosal erosions: a long-term follow-up study.
abstract: Our purpose was to evaluate the long-term clinical significance of gastric erosions. A series of 117 patients with gastric erosions without peptic ulcer disease, and matched controls were studied in 1974-1979. All available subjects were reinvestigated 17 years later, including detailed clinical history and laboratory analysis. At follow-up, erosions were still more prevalent (39%; 20/50) in the erosion group than in the controls (11; 7/66). In Helicobacter pylori-positive participants, peptic ulcer or a scar was more common in the erosion group (17%; 9/52) than in controls (5%; 3/66). Overall malignancy rate was higher in controls (15%; 17/117) than in erosion group (5%; 6/117; P = .025), but no other differences were seen between the groups or related with current erosion. We conclude that a significant proportion of gastric erosions are chronic or recurrent but mostly without serious complications. However, H. pylori-positive patients with erosions have significant risk to develop a peptic ulcer.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Gastroenterology, University of Oulu, Finland. kari.toljamo@tyks.fi
authors.forename: K T
authors.initials: KT
authors.lastname: Toljamo
authors.forename: S E
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Niemelä
authors.forename: T J
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Karttunen
authors.forename: A-L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Karvonen
authors.forename: J K
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Lehtola
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001707:Biopsy, Needle; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002423:Cause of Death; D018450:Disease Progression; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D005753:Gastric Mucosa / Q000473:pathology*; D005773:Gastroscopy / Q000379:methods; D016481:Helicobacter Infections / Q000150:complications* / Q000175:diagnosis; D016480:Helicobacter pylori / Q000302:isolation & purification; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011336:Probability; D012016:Reference Values; D018570:Risk Assessment; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D013274:Stomach Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality* / Q000473:pathology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D013276:Stomach Ulcer / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D015996:Survival Rate; D013997:Time Factors