Association of the Extent of Atrophic Gastritis With Specific Dyspeptic Symptoms

BACKGROUND/AIMS It remains unclear whether atrophic gastritis can affect dyspeptic symptoms. We aimed to investigate whether the extent of atrophic gastritis is associated with specific dyspeptic symptoms. METHODS Consecutive adults in a routine health-checkup program were enrolled in the study. The extent of atrophic gastritis was classified into 3 groups based on the Kimura-Takemoto criteria; the gastritis with no or little atrophy (group A: C0), the gastritis with atrophy mainly in the antrum (group B: C1 and C2), and the gastritis with atrophy in the large area of the corpus (group C: C3 and O). Upper gastrointestinal symptoms were categorized into "typical reflux symptoms," "epigastric pain syndrome (EPS)-related symptoms," and "postprandial distress syndrome (PDS)-related symptoms." RESULTS A total of 1827 patients (1009 males, mean age 45.1 years) were included in the analysis. The subgroups of atrophic gastritis were as follows: group A (n = 1218, 66.7%), group B (n = 392, 21.4%), and group C (n = 217, 11.9%). Typical reflux, EPS-related, and PDS-related symptoms were present in 10.5%, 19.8%, and 16.2% of the subjects, respectively. PDS-related and EPS-related symptoms were significantly more prevalent in the group C of male patients and the group B of female patients, respectively, compared with other groups. PDS-related and EPS-related symptoms were independently associated with the group C in males (OR, 2.123; 95% CI, 1.090-4.136) and the group B in females (OR, 2.571; 95% CI, 1.319-5.025), respectively. CONCLUSIONS The extent of atrophic gastritis appears to affect the generation of specific dyspeptic symptoms in a gender-dependent manner.