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Hindi Review Article
Serological Assessment of Samples from Patients Complaining of ‘Dyspepsia’
Stephen Mortlock*Global Infectious Diseases and Microbiology Liaison, Quest Diagnostics, Cranford Lane, Heston, UK
- *Corresponding Author:
- Dr. Stephen Mortlock
Department of Molecular Biology, Quest Diagnostics
Cranford Lane, Heston, Middlesex TW5 9QA, UK
E-mail: stephen.x.mortlock@questdiagnostics.com
Received date: June 18, 2013; Accepted date: October 21, 2013; Published date: October 30, 2013
Citation: Mortlock S (2013) Serological Assessment of Samples from Patients Complaining of ‘Dyspepsia’. J Gastroint Dig Syst 3:145. doi: 10.4172/2161-069X.1000145
Copyright: © 2013 Mortlock S. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Background: Many people consult their GP for upper gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms, which are often associated with pain or burning and discomfort in the abdomen and range from heartburn and acid regurgitation to nausea and vomiting. Historically, all of these symptoms have been grouped together under the single term ‘dyspepsia’, defined as having one or more symptoms of epigastric pain, burning, postprandial fullness, or early satiation. While gastric or oesophageal cancer is an unusual finding in patients with dyspepsia, excluding malignancy is a common reason for performing endoscopy.
Methods: Quest Diagnostics has been offering the GastroPanel® assays for those patients who have been referred to the walk-in clinic complaining of ‘dyspepsia’. This is a set of three assays (Pepsinogen I, Gastrin 17 and Helicobacter pylori) and the results use an algorithm which can provide information about the stomach health and about the function of the stomach mucosa.
Results: Of all the samples tested 63.5% showed no abnormalities and were reported as ‘normal function of gastric mucosa.’ These patients would be classed as having functional dyspepsia. Thirty-six samples (19.9%) were positive for Helicobacter pylori and the remaining samples had a variety of abnormal results.
Conclusion: Dyspepsia is a common problem seen both by primary care physicians and gastroenterologists. Using the results from the serological analysis of the patients’ serum the clinician can delineate between gastric atrophy and a normal health stomach usually without the need to refer the patient for endoscopy.
