Dyspepsia-Like Symptoms in Helicobacter pylori-Negative Chronic Gastritis are Associated with ASCA-, ANCA-, and Celiac Seropositivity but Not with Other Autoimmune Parameters: A Single-Centre, Retrospective Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Noémi Zádori,1,2 Dávid Németh,1 Levente Frim,1 Nóra Vörhendi,1,2 Lajos Szakó,1,2 Szilárd Váncsa,1– 3 Péter Hegyi,1– 3 József Czimmer1,4 1Institute for Translational Medicine, Medical School, University of Pécs, Pécs, Hungary; 2János Szentágothai Research Centre, University of Pécs, Pécs, Hungary; 3Centre for Translational Medicine, Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary; 4Division of Gastroenterology, First Department of Medicine, Medical School, University of Pécs, Pécs, HungaryCorrespondence: József Czimmer, First Department of Medicine, University of Pécs Medical School, Ifjúság street 13, Pécs, H-7624, Hungary, Email [email protected]: Dyspeptic symptoms are frequent in the general population, with a high socioeconomic burden. Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) might be a possible etiological factor; however, it is also common in H. pylori negative gastritis. Clarification of the underlying aetiology might be beneficial to set up the optimal treatment strategy for dyspepsia and chronic gastritis (CG) itself. We aimed to assess the prevalence of dyspeptic symptoms in patients with H. pylori negative CG and explore autoimmunity’s possible role.Methods: This retrospective study included data from patients with H. pylori negative CG. Exclusion criteria were (1) acute gastritis; (2) reactive gastropathy; (3) subjects without any serology testing results; (4) H. pylori positivity; (5) presence of atrophy, intestinal metaplasia (IM), gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), ulcer, or cancer. The following endpoints were assessed (1) the rate of dyspepsia-like symptoms; (2) association between dyspepsia and autoimmune disease-related seromarker positivity (AISP); (3) frequency of other symptoms in CG and its association with AISP; (4) location of the inflammation and its association with AISP.Results: From a total of 285 patients, 175 were included in this study. Among these patients, 95 experienced dyspeptic symptoms (54.29%) and were associated more with AISP (p = 0.012), especially with celiac seropositivity (p = 0.045), anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (ANCA) and anti-Saccharomyces cerevisiae antibodies (ASCA) positivity (p = 0.043). A significant association was not found with other tested autoimmune (AI)-related antibody positivity.Conclusion: Positivity of seromarkers of autoimmune diseases in chronic gastritis may predispose to have dyspeptic symptoms and may be the causative factor behind some cases of uninvestigated dyspepsia. These data suggest that further prospective studies are needed to clarify whether screening for autoantibodies in patients with dyspepsia is cost-effective and helps the earlier diagnosis of autoimmune diseases.Keywords: chronic gastritis, autoimmunity, auto-antibody, dyspepsia

Keywords

• chronic gastritis
• autoimmunity
• auto-antibody
• dyspepsia