@article{3098154,
    title = "Hypergastrinemia is associated with increased risk of distal colon
adenomas",
    author = "Georgopoulos, Sotirios D. and Polymeros, Dimitrios and Triantafyllou, and Konstantinos and Spiliadi, Charis and Mentis, Andreas and Karamanolis, and Dimitrios G. and Ladas, Spiros D.",
    journal = "Digital Biomarkers",
    year = "2006",
    volume = "74",
    number = "1",
    pages = "42-46",
    publisher = "Karger",
    doi = "10.1159/000096593",
    keywords = "Helicobacter pylori; colon adenomas; CagA; gastrin; hypergastrinemia",
    abstract = "Background/Aims: Helicobacter pylori infection is a recognized cause of
hypergastrinemia, but the association of blood gastrin levels with
colonic adenomas (CAs) is controversial. The aim of this study is to
investigate if hypergastrinemia, H. pylori infection and/or cagA protein
are risk factors for CAs. Methods: In this prospective case-control
study, fasting serum samples from 78 consecutive patients with CAs and
78 demographically matched colonoscopy-negative controls were assayed
for anti-H. pylori immunoglobulin G, cagA protein and serum gastrin
levels. Multivariate analysis was performed to identify risk factors for
colon adenomas. Results: Though prevalence of H. pylori antibodies was
not significantly different, the prevalence of cagA protein was
significantly higher in patients with adenomas (42.3%) as compared with
controls (25.6%, p < 0.03). Median gastrin levels were significantly
higher in patients with CAs ( 55, 20 975 pg/ml) than in controls (45.2,
23-529 pg/ml) (p < 0.001). Hypergastrinemia (> 110 pg/ml) was commoner
in patients with CAs than in controls (29.5 vs. 11.5%, p = 0.006) and
was the only independent risk factor for adenomas (odds ratio 3.2, 95%
CI 1.4-7.5) by multivariate analysis, but not H. pylori infection or
cagA positivity. There was a significant association of hypergastrinemia
and distal distribution of adenomas (p < 0.002). Conclusions: Our study
shows that hypergastrinemia is a risk factor for CAs, especially of the
distal colon. Copyright (c) 2006 S. Karger AG, Basel."
}