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Letter to the Editor
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2026. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Jan 21, 2026; 32(3): 114347
Published online Jan 21, 2026. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v32.i3.114347
Inflammation, immunity, and gastric ulcer — clinical insights from routine haematology
Hui Wang, Shi-San Bao
Hui Wang, Department of Infectious Diseases, Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai 200025, China
Shi-San Bao, Department of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Sydney, New South Wales 2006, Australia
Author contributions: Wang H and Bao SS both wrote and edited the letter.
Conflict-of-interest statement: There is no conflict of interest associated with any of the senior author or other coauthors contributed their efforts in this manuscript.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Shi-San Bao, Additional Professor, Department of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Sydney, D06, New South Wales 2006, Australia. profbao@hotmail.com
Received: September 16, 2025
Revised: November 24, 2025
Accepted: December 5, 2025
Published online: January 21, 2026
Processing time: 121 Days and 15.9 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: Gastric ulcer remains a significant health concern with serious complications. This study shows that six complete blood count (CBC)-derived inflammatory indices—neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio, monocyte-to-lymphocyte ratio, platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio, systemic immune-inflammation index, systemic inflammatory response index (SIRI), and aggregate index of systemic inflammation—are associated with gastric ulcer, with SIRI demonstrating the strongest predictive value (area under the curve = 0.868). As CBC is widely available, inexpensive, and reproducible, these indices may serve as practical, non-invasive tools for identifying at-risk patients and supplementing traditional risk factors. The findings emphasise the role of systemic inflammation in gastric ulcer pathogenesis and warrant prospective validation.