Gastric cancer in patients with Helicobacter pylori-negative autoimmune gastritis

Figure 1 Schematic representation of lesion progression in Helicobacter pylori infected gastritis, autoimmune gastritis, and cases of combined disease. Blue indicates healthy mucosa and orange indicates mucosa with atrophy or inflammatory cell infiltration. A: In Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) gastritis, the lesion progresses from the antrum to pangastritis in advanced cases; B: In autoimmune gastritis without H. pylori infection, the lesion progresses from the corpus but does not extend to the antrum, even in the advanced phase; C: In autoimmune gastritis with H. pylori infection, the lesion begins in both the antrum and the corpus, and in advanced cases, it becomes pangastritis. The arrows indicate the direction of disease progression. In the presence of H. pylori infection (A and C), it is difficult to distinguish whether autoimmune gastritis is present in the advanced phase. H. pylori: Helicobacter pylori.