Editorial
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2018. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Nov 14, 2018; 24(42): 4721-4727
Published online Nov 14, 2018. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v24.i42.4721
Increased susceptibility of aging gastric mucosa to injury and delayed healing: Clinical implications
Andrzej S Tarnawski, Amrita Ahluwalia
Andrzej S Tarnawski, Amrita Ahluwalia, Department of Gastroenterology Research, University of California Irvine and the Veterans Administration Long Beach Healthcare System, Long Beach, CA 90822, United States
Author contributions: Tarnawski AS and Ahluwalia A contributed to this paper; Tarnawski AS designed the overall concept and outline of the manuscript; Ahluwalia A contributed to the discussion and design of the manuscript; Tarnawski AS and Ahluwalia A contributed to the writing, and editing the manuscript, illustrations, and review of literature.
Supported by Merit Review Award from the United States Department of Veterans Affairs Biomedical Laboratory Research and Development Service, No. I01 BX000626-05A2 to Tarnawski AS.
Conflict-of-interest statement: Andrzej S Tarnawski and Amrita Ahluwalia have nothing to disclose.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Andrzej S Tarnawski, MD, PhD, DSc, FACG, AGAF, Professor, Gastroenterology Research Department, University of California Irvine and the Veterans Administration Long Beach Healthcare System, 5901 E. Seventh Street, Long Beach, CA 90822, United States. atarnawski@yahoo.com
Telephone: +1-562-8264956 Fax: +1-562-8265675
Received: August 28, 2018
Peer-review started: August 28, 2018
First decision: October 9, 2018
Revised: October 12, 2018
Accepted: October 21, 2018
Article in press: October 21, 2018
Published online: November 14, 2018
Processing time: 77 Days and 9.6 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: Low dose aspirin is widely used to prevent cardiovascular events such as myocardial infarcts and strokes; however, this therapy significantly increases the risk of gastrointestinal injury and induces ulceration and serious bleeding especially in aging individuals. This risk is further increased in patients using low dose aspirin concurrently with other antiplatelet agents, other nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory agents and/or alcohol, or in patients with Helicobacter pylori infection.