A recent study published by the research group of Professor Francesco Di Mario at Parma University, Italy, found a strong relationship between low levels of plasma gastrin-17 (G-17) and gastro-oesophageal reflux disease (GORD).
These results add to the weight of evidence behind GastroPanel, a test produced by BIOHIT Oyj, that includes G-17 as one of three biomarkers used in combination with a Helicobacter pylori IgG assay to distinguish the stomach health of patients with gastrointestinal problems.
GastroPanel is designed for the first-line diagnosis of H. pylori infection and atrophic gastritis in patients with dyspepsia or GORD. It is a non-invasive blood test that offers an easy way to check the stomach mucosa and gastric acid secretion in the patient. This can lead to an informed decision about whether further examination is needed – usually by gastroscopy – and ultimately to the early discovery and intervention of gastrointestinal disorders.
Current UK guidelines recommend an H. pylori stool antigen test in the care pathway of patients with gastrointestinal problems. However, this test fails to show mucosal damage due to long-term infection, including gastric atrophy (GA) or gastric intestinal metaplasia (GIM), both of which are precursors to cancer. In addition to testing for H. pylori infection, GastroPanel tests for three stomach-specific biomarkers – pepsinogen I, pepsinogen II and G-17 – that provide more information than a stool test alone, helping to identify patients at risk non-invasively.