Gastric juice acidity in upper gastrointestinal diseases

Table 1 Baseline characteristics of healthy subjects and patients with gastric esophageal ulcer, gastric ulcer, duodenal ulcer and gastric cancer n (%)

	HS (n = 165)	EU (n = 21)	GU (n = 136)	DU (n = 100)	GC (n = 89)
Age (yr)	51 ± 14	54 ± 12	63 ± 15c	54 ± 15	67 ± 14c
Sex (M/F)	83/82	17/4b	75/61	67/33b	63/26b
Smoking	20 (12)	6 (29)a	39 (29)c	37 (37)c	12 (13)
Alcohol drinking	12 (8)	2 (10)	4 (3)	9 (9)	6 (7)
Helicobacter pylori infection	68 (41)	6 (28)	76 (56)a	75 (75)c	45 (51)a

^aP < 0.05,

^bP < 0.01,

^cP < 0.001 vs healthy subjects. HS: Healthy subjects; EU: Esophageal ulcer; GU: Gastric ulcer; DU: Duodenal ulcer; GC: Gastric cancer.

Table 2 Univariate analysis for clinical and histological factors related to the hypoacidity of gastric juice

Principal parameters	n	Rate of hypoacidity (%)	P value
Clinical factors
Age (yr)			< 0.001
< 60	282	24.8
≥ 60	229	39.7
Sex			0.496
Female	206	29.6
Male	305	32.5
Family history of gastric cancer			0.048
-	497	31.0
+	14	50.0
Smoking			0.259
-	396	33.3
+	115	25.2
Alcohol consumption			0.100
-	478	32.6
+	33	15.2
Bile stain of gastric juice			< 0.001
-	301	20.9
+	210	46.7
Helicobacter pylori infection			0.013
-	241	25.7
+	270	36.7
Histological factors
Antrum
Acute inflammatory score			0.476
Low (grade 0, 1)	61	44.3
High (grade 2, 3)	91	38.5
Chronic inflammatory score			0.292
Low (grade 0, 1)	20	30.0
High (grade 2, 3)	132	42.4
Atrophy			0.195
-	43	32.6
+	109	44.0
Intestinal metaplasia			0.006
-	91	31.9
+	61	54.1
Corpus
Acute inflammatory score			< 0.001
Low (grade 0, 1)	88	28.4
High (grade 2, 3)	64	57.8
Chronic inflammatory score			< 0.001
Low (grade 0, 1)	43	18.6
High (grade 2, 3)	109	49.5
Atrophy			< 0.001
-	106	28.3
+	46	69.6
Intestinal metaplasia			< 0.001
-	126	34.9
+	26	69.2

Table 3 Multivariate analysis for independent factors determining hypoacidity of gastric juice

Risk factors	Coefficient	SE	OR (95% CI)	P value
Bile reflux	1.116	0.446	3.1 (1.3-7.3)	0.012
Acute inflammatory score of the corpus	1.115	0.488	3.1 (1.2-7.9)	0.022
Atrophy of the corpus	1.245	0.497	3.5 (1.3-9.2)	0.012

Table 4 pH levels of gastric juices in upper gastrointestinal diseases n (%)

pH of gastric juice	HS (n = 165)	EU (n = 21 )	GU (n = 136)	DU (n= 100)	GC (n = 89)
Level
pH < 2	82 (50)	19 (91)	33 (24)	55 (55)	5 (5)
2 ≤ pH < 3.5	46 (28)	1 (5)	63 (46)	40 (40)	6 (7)
3.5 ≤ pH < 4.0	6 (4)	0 (0)	5 (4)	2 (2)	5 (6)
4.0 ≤ pH < 5.0	5 (3)	0 (0)	7 (5)	0 (0)	5 (6)
5.0 ≤ pH < 6.0	5 (3)	0 (0)	3 (2)	1 (1)	2 (2)
6.0 ≤ pH < 7.0	2 (1)	0 (0)	2 (2)	1 (1)	9 (10)
7 ≤ pH	19 (12)	1 (5)	23 (17)	1 (1)	57 (65)
mean ± SE	2.90 ± 0.16	1.91 ± 0.28a	3.42 ± 0.20b	2.09 ± 0.09a	6.62 ± 0.22b

^aP < 0.05,

^bP < 0.001 vs healthy subjects. HS: Healthy subjects; EU: Esophageal ulcer; GU: Gastric ulcer; DU: Duodenal ulcer; GC: Gastric cancer.