Helicobacter pylori and histopathological findings in patients with dyspepsia.

OBJECTIVE

Although Helicobacter pylori infection has been reported to be more frequent in patients with dyspepsia, whether it should be treated in dyspepsia remains controversial. This study was carried out to compare the histopathological changes in Helicobacter pylori-positive and -negative dyspepsia patients.

METHODS

A total of 461 patients with Helicobacter pylori-positive dyspepsia seen in our institution were enrolled in the study. The control group was formed from 100 Helicobacter pylori-negative dyspepsia patients. Subjects underwent an upper gastrointestinal endoscopy, and biopsy specimens were taken from the gastric antrum and corpus. All of the cases were evaluated according to the Sydney classification, and the relation of Helicobacter pylori with chronic inflammation, atrophy, intestinal metaplasia, and activity was investigated by two pathologists.

RESULTS

Activity, inflammation and intestinal metaplasia were found in 10 (10%), 70 (70%) and 10 (10%) of Helicobacter pylori (-) patients, respectively, and the numbers increased with increasing Helicobacter pylori intensity when compared with Helicobacter pylori (+) patients (p<0.01, p<0.01 and p<0.05, respectively). Atrophy was found in 27 (5.5%) of all cases (in 10 Helicobacter pylori (-) patients and in 17 Helicobacter pylori (+) patients), but no significant relation was found with increasing Helicobacter pylori intensity (p>0.05). There was no significant difference between corpus alone or antrum alone Helicobacter pylori (+) and both corpus/antrum (+) patients in regards to the presence of activity, inflammation, intestinal metaplasia, and atrophy (p>0.05).

CONCLUSIONS

Determination of the degree of morphological changes accompanying Helicobacter pylori infection in dyspepsia is important in the follow-up and treatment of patients. As activity, inflammation and intestinal metaplasia increase with increasing Helicobacter pylori intensity in dyspepsia patients, Helicobacter pylori eradication treatment can be recommended in these patients.