GastroPanel® is a simple laboratory examination performed on a blood sample. It gives diagnosis, for example, of healthy stomach mucosa, Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection and atrophic gastritis. Based on the results, functional dyspepsia can be differentiated from organic dyspepsia. The results also give important information on possible risks related to H. pylori infection, atrophic gastritis and high acid production. GastroPanel examination promotes "Evidence based Medicine".

H. pylori infection is diagnosed by an antibody test. Pepsinogen I, pepsinogen II and gastrin-17 levels describe the structure and function of the whole gastric mucosa. The more severe is the atrophic gastritis in the corpus mucosa, the lower is the level of pepsinogen I, and the ratio of pepsinogenI/II in blood. The more severe is the atrophic gastritis of antrum mucosa, the lower is the the level of gastrin-17 in blood. On the "Interpretation of the results" page you will find a more detailed explanation on how GastroPanel® results are interpreted.

GastroPanel® gives a reliable diagnosis of:

• Healthy stomach mucosa. When the stomach mucosa is healthy, the reason for stomach problems is most likely to be functional dyspepsia or disease outside the stomach.
• H. pylori infection.
• Atrophic gastritis (severely damaged and dysfunctional stomach mucosa) and the condition, specifically, of the corpus and antrum mucosa (normal, gastritis or atrophic gastritis)

A GastroSoft report on GastroPanel® results gives:

• Test results and diagnosis
• Reference ranges and explanation on values outside them
• Recommendations for further testin/treatment (e.g. gastroscopy and biopsy examination, H. pylori eradication treatment) that the doctor in charge decides on.

GastroPanel® is well suited for follow-up of the success of treatment for H. pylori eradication treatment and atrophic gastritis, as well as for their diagnosis. Furthermore, Gastrin-17 level indicates whether the patient may has hyperacidic stomach, and a resulting risk of gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) and its complications. GastroPanel can therefore be used to determine whether a patient really needs e.g. commonly described PPI (proton pump inhibitor) medication. If a patient has atrophic gastritis in the corpus, the stomach is hypoacidic, and there is no need for PPIs; if the stomach is hyperacidic, the  situation is different.

Table 1. In a Finnish multicenter study with 404 dyspepsia patients as participants, the performance of GastroPanel was compared to histology. GastroPanel examination diagnosed healthy stomach mucosa nearly as reliably as gastroscopy and biopsy examination. For atrophic gastritis, the accuracy was excellent (81%) compared to histological study.

GastroPanel for Doctors (flash file, 60k): click to launch