The Prevalence of Intestinal Metaplasia in Dyspeptic Patients

Abstract

Gastric cancer may be asymptomatic until advanced stages so it is important to detect the precancerous lesions. One of these precancerous lesions is Intestinal Metaplasia (IM). This study aimed to find out the prevalence of IM and its related risk factors in dyspeptic patients. In this cross-sectional study, 1650 dyspeptic patients above 15 years who were undergoing endoscopy department in two hospitals in Khorramabad, Iran, were invited to participate in the study during October 2015 to August 2016. The patients were examined in terms of erythema and inflammation, ulcers, erosions, atrophy, mass, gastric outlet obstruction during upper endoscopy. Six biopsy samples were taken and fixed in 10 percent formalin solution and then were sent to the pathology laboratory for histological examination. Data were analyzed by SPSS 21. In total, 1016 patients were entered in this study. The overall prevalence of IM was 10.5 (107/1016). In dyspeptic patients; the prevalence of complete and incomplete IM was 12.15 and 87.85 respectively. Increasing age, smoking and peptic ulcer were significantly related to IM (P<0.001, P=0.027, P=0.012). There was no significant meaning between gender, level of education, place of residence, family history of gastric cancer, opium, hookah smoking and alcohol consumption with IM. The relatively high prevalence of IM was found in dyspeptic patients. Especially incomplete subtype is a risk factor of gastric cancer and due to its relationship with smoking and increasing age, it is recommended to provide preventive procedures of gastric cancer in elderly aged and smokers.