ABSTRACT
In this study, a total of 164 patients underwent upper gastroduodenal endoscopy and sucrose permeability test to evaluate the diagnostic sensitivity and specificity of increased urinary sucrose excretion in the prediction of endoscopic finding. It was found that the urinary sucrose excretion, reflecting the sucrose permeability, was highly significantly increased in patients with severe gastritis and gastric ulcer; while, there was no significant difference in sucrose permeability between controls and patients with esophagitis, mild gastritis, duodenitis or duodenal ulcer. Compared with endoscopy, sucrose permeability test provided a new, simple, cheap and noninvasive diagnostic tool that was readily accepted by the patients for effectively screening large populations at a risk of gastric mucosal damage and for a follow up