Determination of whether screening tests for chronic atrophic gastritis really has a positive predictive value.

Intestinal‑type gastric adenocarcinomas are preceded by precancerous lesions, which begin with chronic atrophic gastritis. Over the last few years, multiple serological screening techniques have been performed and commercialized for the diagnosis of chronic atrophic gastritis. In the present study, 123 patients were recruited at the International Cancer Institute 'G. Pascale' Foundation (Naples, Italy) to test commercial kits for the serological determination of chronic atrophic gastritis, supported by histological analysis, according to the International Group of Gastroenterologists 'Operative Link for Gastritis Assessment Staging System'. The results revealed a significant discrepancy between serological screening and histological evaluation in 10.6% of patients, which highlighted the dubious positive predictive value of commercial serological screening kits.