Antibodies to Cag A protein are not predictive of serious gastroduodenal disease in Indian patients.
OBJECTIVE
The present study was aimed at assessing the predictive utility of anti-Cag A antibodies in differentiating patients of duodenal ulcer (DU) and non ulcer dyspepsia (NUD) from asymptomatic controls in a developing country.


METHODS
Sera from 120 subjects were tested for antibodies to Cag A using the immunodominant portion of a recombinant 37.5 kDa fusion protein by ELISA, in endoscopically proven cases of DU and NUD and healthy controls.


RESULTS
The observed optical density (OD) in DU and NUD patients was 1,947 and 1,960 respectively, which was higher than that observed in controls (p < 0.01), but there was no difference in the anti-Cag A antibody titers between DU and NUD patients.


CONCLUSIONS
Anti-Cag A antibodies do not seem to discriminate duodenal ulcer patients from non ulcer dyspepsia in the Indian population.
Kumar
S
S
Department of Microbiology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi.
Dhar
A
A
Srinivasan
S
S
Jain
S
S
Rattan
A
A
Sharma
M P
MP
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000942:Antigens, Bacterial / Q000097:blood*; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000276:immunology*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D004381:Duodenal Ulcer / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000276:immunology; D004415:Dyspepsia / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000276:immunology; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D005260:Female; D016481:Helicobacter Infections / Q000276:immunology*; D016480:Helicobacter pylori / Q000276:immunology*; D006801:Humans; D007194:India; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D015995:Prevalence; D012372:ROC Curve; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity
D000942:Antigens, Bacterial; D001426:Bacterial Proteins; C080866:cagA protein, Helicobacter pylori