Chronic atrophic gastritis in patients over 60 years of age: clinical, morphofunctional, and neuroendocrine parameters

Objective: to analyze the clinical, morphological and neuroendocrine parameters of the course of chronic H. pylori-associated atrophic gastritis in patients 60 years of age and older in comparison with similar parameters in patients younger than 60 years with chronic H. pylori-associated non-atrophic gastritis. Material and Methods. 60 patients with chronic atrophic H. pylori-associated gastritis and 20 healthy individuals were examined. Clinical symptoms of the disease, H. pylori seeding rate, esophagogastroduodenoscopy, morphological and immunohistochemical analysis were evaluated. Results. Patients older than 60 years are less likely than patients younger than 60 to have epigastric pain and heartburn pain, but more often dyspeptic syndrome, but the degree of gastritis activity and the degree of contamination of H. pylori was lower. There are more NO synthase-immunopositive cells, and less immunotropic motilin cells than in patients under 60 years of age. Conclusion. Patients older than 60 years have specific features of the formation of chronic H. pylori-associated atrophic gastritis.