Risk of gastric carcinoma will be low in generations born at turn of the 20 and 21 centuries in Finland. Modelling NORDCAN data of the age group specific incidence rates of gastric cancer with PLS-regression and with attention to age ('age effect') and year of the birth ('cohort effect').

Background And Methods: We examined in NORDCAN database how the annual age group-specific incidence rates (IR) of gastric cancer (GCA), and correspondingly the GCA risk, have declined in Finland during the twentieth century, and whether this decline corresponds to a decrease in the cohort-specific prevalence rate of (Hp) gastritis that is considered an important precancerous risk condition for GCA.

Results: In modelling with partial least squares regression (PLSR), the logarithmically transformed IRs (ln(IR) of GCA were well explained with age and birth cohort as explanatory model variables. By considering the observed (actual) and the PLSR-modelled IRs, the IR of GCA (and the risk of GCA) has decreased gradually in Finland from 1900 onward, cohort by cohort.

When will gastritis disappear in history in Finland?

Objectives: To predict how the10-year birth cohort specific prevalence rates of chronic non-atrophic (CG) and atrophic gastritis (AG), related to (Hp) infection, will decline during the 21 century among the native adult Finns.

Materials And Methods: The predictions are based as continuums of our earlier observations of gradual and significant declines in birth cohort specific prevalence rates of CG and AG in endoscopic biopsies from gastric antrum and corpus of 2298 adult dyspeptic outpatients or asymptomatic volunteers born 1890-1977 that were endoscopied in 1972-1997 in Finland.

Results And Discussion: We could predict that the Hp related CG and AG will gradually disappear in history among the native Finns during the 21 century.

Prevalence rates of heathy stomach mucosa, chronic non-atrophic and atrophic gastritis in endoscopic biopsies in adults born in Finland in 1890-1977.

Background: infection, chronic gastritis (CG) and atrophic gastritis (AG) are a continuum of consecutive events in the stomach mucosa. We studied the birth cohort and age group-specific prevalence rates of 'healthy' (N) and 'diseased' stomachs with CG or AG in endoscopic biopsies in adult people born in Finland in 1890-1977.

Materials And Methods: Study series consisted of 690 and 1608 adults with a diagnostic gastroscopy in 1972-1997.

GastroPanel® Biomarker Assay: The Most Comprehensive Test for Infection and Its Clinical Sequelae. A Critical Review.

Background/aim: Several clinical conditions seriously hamper the diagnostic accuracy of the commonly used tests for Helicobacter pylori (Hp), C-urea breath test (UBT) and stool antigen test (SAT). The present communication is a critical review of the potential limitations of UBT and SAT, and describes the approach on how these can be avoided. Drawbacks of the Hp tests: False-negative results are most often due to low bacterial load in the stomach due to: i) use of proton pump inhibitor medication; ii) use of antibiotics; iii) presence of atrophic gastritis and hypoacid stomach; iv); bleeding peptic ulcer; v) gastric cancer (GC) and vi) mucosal-associated lymphatic tissue lymphoma.

Serological biomarker testing helps avoiding unnecessary endoscopies in obese patients before bariatric surgery.

Background: To assess the value of serological biomarker testing as a substitute for esophagogastroduodenoscopy (EGDS) in pre-operative assessment of patients referred for bariatric surgery.

Methods: Sixty-five obese patients with a mean age of 43 years (range: 21-65) and a mean body mass index (BMI) of 44 (range: 36-59) were studied. The patients were tested with a four-biomarker panel: pepsinogen I and II, gastrin-17 (basal and stimulated), and (HP) antibodies (GastroPanel®, Biohit Oyj, Finland).