title: High prevalence of Helicobacter pylori in liver cirrhosis: relationship with clinical and endoscopic features and the risk of peptic ulcer.
abstract: In 153 consecutive patients with cirrhosis we assessed: (1) the prevalence of IgG to Helicobacter pylori and compared it with that found in 1010 blood donors resident in the same area; and (2) the relationships of IgG to Helicobacter pylori with clinical and endoscopic features and with the risk of peptic ulcer. The IgG to Helicobacter pylori prevalence of cirrhotics was significantly higher than in blood donors (76.5% vs 41.8%; P < 0.0005) and was not associated with sex, cirrhosis etiology, Child class, gammaglobulins and hypertensive gastropathy. In both groups, the prevalence of IgG to Helicobacter pylori was significantly higher in subjects over 40. Among patients with cirrhosis a significantly higher prevalence of Helicobacter pylori was found in patients with previous hospital admission (P = 0.02) and/or upper gastrointestinal endoscopy (P = 0.01) and patients with peptic ulcer (P = 0.0004). Multivariate analysis identified increasing age and male sex as risk factors for a positive Helicobacter pylori serology and no independent risk factors for peptic ulcer. The high prevalence of Helicobacter pylori-positive serology found in the present series is related to age and sex and might also be explained by previous hospital admissions and/or upper gastrointestinal endoscopy. Our results do not confirm the role of Helicobacter pylori as risk factor for peptic ulcer in patients with liver cirrhosis.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Medicina Interna e Gastroenterologia, Università di Bologna, Italy.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Siringo
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Vaira
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Menegatti
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Piscaglia
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sofia
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gaetani
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Miglioli
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Corinaldesi
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Bolondi
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D000368:Aged; D000907:Antibodies, Bacterial / Q000097:blood; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D016099:Endoscopy, Gastrointestinal / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D016481:Helicobacter Infections / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000276:immunology; D016480:Helicobacter pylori / Q000276:immunology; D006801:Humans; D007074:Immunoglobulin G / Q000097:blood; D007558:Italy / Q000453:epidemiology; D008103:Liver Cirrhosis / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000276:immunology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D010437:Peptic Ulcer / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000276:immunology; D015995:Prevalence; D012307:Risk Factors; D016036:Seroepidemiologic Studies; D017678:Sex Distribution
chemical_list: D000907:Antibodies, Bacterial; D007074:Immunoglobulin G