Autoimmune gastritis

[WiscGuy]

I came across an abstract of an article called "Autoimmune gastritis".

nature.com/articles/s41572-...

Unfortunately, the actual article is behind a paywall. But a helpful illustration from the article can be downloaded, and is available here:

nature.com/articles/s41572-...

The abstract describes Autoimmune gastritis (AIG) as a separate disorder that sounds a lot like what a lot of us are experiencing.

"For several years, most studies have focused on pernicious anaemia only, generating confusion between the two entities. In AIG, the gastric proton pump, H+/K+ ATPase, is the major autoantigen recognized by autoreactive T cells. The T cell-dependent activation of B cells stimulates the production of anti-parietal cell antibodies, the serological hallmark of AIG. The role of Helicobacter pylori infection in activating or favouring the autoimmune process is still uncertain. Early histopathological alterations allowing a more precise and prompt recognition have recently been described. AIG is burdened by a substantial diagnostic delay as it can present with varied clinical signs including, among others, gastrointestinal symptoms and neuropsychiatric manifestations."

I discovered a similar article that is available in full text:

"Autoimmune gastritis, with or without pernicious anemia: epidemiology, risk factors, and clinical management"

journals.sagepub.com/doi/fu...

An interesting quote from this article:

"Extra-gastrointestinal symptoms include a number of other organ systems (Figure 3). Vitamin B12 deficiency can lead to subacute combined degeneration, a peripheral neuropathy and myelopathy of the posterior and lateral columns that can be irreversible if treatment is delayed.55 In severe cases, this can also cause optic neuropathy and encephalopathy."

[Jillymo]

Thanks for posting and nice to see you again.

I hope your health and symptoms have improved.

[Rexz]

Yes, all is correct. It is now known that Pernicious Anemia is really a late phase symptom of Autoimmune Metaplastic Atrophic Gastritis (AMAG), also known as, Autoimmune Gastritis (AIG) or Autoimmune Atrophic Gastritis (AAG) or Biermers Disease, or Addisonian anemia. When I say "Pernicious Anemia" I am referring to the true modern definition of PA which is PA truly diagnosed with either Parietal Cell Antibodies or Intrinsic Factor Antibodies or both. When Pernicious Anemia was first discovered it was a deadly anemia with many causes. In fact until a decade or so the medical literature referred to two types of Pernicious Anemia the first Type A was the Autoimmune PA, the second, Type B, included all other non-autoimmune causes of PA. Today PA only is supposed to refer to autoimmune PA. There is much confusion about this in the medical literature and the medical community. In fact much of the available literature only discusses the anemia caused by being B12 deficient. With autoimmune gastritis there are also a whole host of other issues such as achlorhydria and iron malabsorption due to low/no gastric acid and of course a higher risk of gastric cancer that anyone diagnosed with PA should be on the lookout for.

[WiscGuy in reply to Rexz]

Thank you for this concise summary.

[LynetteinUSA in reply to Rexz]

Yes. Unfortunately, I was just told last week I will most likely have cancer in two to five years. I had asked my new gastro doc how long it takes from having AMAG to changing to cancer. I thought the answer would have been a longer period of time. 🫤

[dot-dash]

Thanks for posting - the Nature primer has lots of overlap, full article here: app.box.com/s/behbprxd82en7...

[WiscGuy in reply to dot-dash]

Thank you for the link.