A study of procalcitonin and c-reactive protein in chronic h.pylori gastritis and it’s relation to severity of the disease

Abstract

Helicobacter pylori has an important role in the pathogenesis of peptic ulcer disease, and can also have a role in the development of mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue lymphoma and gastric cancer. Invasive diagnostic methods (which require endoscopy) and non-invasive diagnostic methods (which do not) are available for the diagnosis of H. pylori infections. C-reactive protein (CRP) is an acute-phase reactant that originates from the liver. CRP has many clinical and biological effects and can be used for the diagnosis and follow-up of different inflammatory and traumatic processes. Procalcitonin (PCT), a prohormone of calcitonin, is a polypeptide that consists of 116 aa and is released from the C cells in the thyroid gland of normal hosts during bacterial infections, particularly in sepsis. As serum level of CRP is normally less than 1 mg/dl, it can increase up to 35-40 mg/dl in response to infection or inflammation. Upon understanding its value in diagnosis of various conditions, high-sensitivity CRP (hs-CRP) assay has been developed to measure CRP in a sensitivity of 0.5 mg/dl. In addition to being an indicator of inflammation, hs-CRP has been suggested to be a marker of cardiovascular diseases and gastric cancer in patients with HP-associated chronic gastritis. Although serum level of hs-CRP has been known to increase in chronic gastritis with HP infection, limited studies have focused on the association of hs-CRP level with inflammatory activity and presence of precancerous lesions in biopsy specimens.