TABLE 1.

Characteristics of the 437 patients included in the study

		Scratch sign
	Total	Positive	Negative	p‐value
No. of patients	437	103	334
Age, range	72 (28–95)	74 (28–85)	72 (28–95)	0.067
Sex, male/female	226/211	44/59	182/152	0.042
Helicobacter pylori status				<0.001
Current	71 (16.2%)	1	70
Past	290 (66.4%)	78	212
Uninfected	76 (17.4%)	24	52
Gastric mucosal atrophy				<0.001
None	76 (17.4%)	24	52
Mild	48 (11.0%)	16	32
Moderate	202 (46.2%)	56	146
Severe	111 (25.4%)	7	104
PPI or PCAB (+)	114 (26.1%)	9 (8.7%)	105 (31.4%)	<0.001
NSAIDs (+)	15 (3.4%)	2 (1.9%)	13 (3.9%)	0.537
Antithrombotic agent (+)	55 (12.6%)	4 (3.9%)	51 (15.3%)	0.002

Note: Gastric mucosal atrophy was evaluated using the classification of Kimura and Takemoto (C0: none, C1–C2: mild, C3–O1: moderate, and O2–O3: severe).

Abbreviations: NSAIDs, nonsteroidal anti‐inflammatory drugs; PCAB, potassium‐competitive acid blocker; PPI, proton pump inhibitor.