Background and aim: To determine the temporal evolution of serum markers of autoimmune gastritis, mainly pepsinogen I (PI) and parietal cell antibodies (PCA), in patients with Type 1 diabetes mellitus (DM1).
Materials and methods: A 5-yr prospective follow-up study of 168 DM1 patients (87 men, aged 31 ± 9.3 yr) attending the endocrinology outpatient clinic of a university hospital evaluated in 2001 and 2006. Serum PI, gastrin, hemoglobin, cobalamin concentrations, PCA and antibodies to intrinsic factor were measured.
Results: In 2001, 11 patients had low PI concentrations and positive PCA (group I), 11 had only low PI concentrations (group II), and 33 had only positive PCA (group III). After 5 yr, PI remained low and PCA positive in all patients from group I. In group II, PI remained low in 4 and normalized in 7. In group III, 4 patients presented low PI concentrations after 5 yr, which remained normal in the other 29 subjects. PCA became negative in 17 patients from group III. In 2001, 3 of the 11 patients of group I had low cobalamin concentrations. In 2006, 2 additional patients from this group presented low cobalamin concentrations.
Conclusions: These results show the importance of determining PI together with PCA, since the presence of abnormal results in both tests, that is low PI and positive PCA, is the association that best identifies patients with a higher risk to decrease cobalamin concentrations during follow-up.