Gender, age, endoscopic findings, urease and Helicobacter pylori: all uncorrelated within a sample of a high gastric cancer prevalence population in Amazon

Abstract

BACKGROUND: It is widely assumed that gender, age, gastritis and Helicobacter pylori , all have some degree of cor-relation and, therefore, can synergistically lead to the development of gastric cancer. OBJECTIVE: In this cross-sectional study, we expected to observe the above mentioned correlation in the analysis of medical records of 67 patients of both sexes (female, n=44), mean age ± standard deviation: 41±12 years old, all from Belém (capital of Pará State, Brazilian Amazon), a city historically known as one with the highest gastric cancer prevalence in this country. METHODS: All patients were submitted to upper gastrointestinal endoscopy for gastric biopsy histopathological analysis and rapid urease test. All diagnoses of gastritis were recorded considering its topography, category and the degree of inflammatory activity, being associated or not associated with H. pylo-ri infection. RESULTS: The results show that no statistically relevant associations were found among the prevalences of the observed variables. CONCLUSION: The authors hypothesize that observed risk factors associated to gastric cancer might be lesser syner-gistic than is usually expected.