Household Helicobacter pylori antibody survey in children with upper gastrointestinal symptoms.
The aim of this study was to evaluate the family clustering in symptomatic children and to better understand possible transmission routes of Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection. From September 1998 to March 2000, totally 112 children with upper gastrointestinal symptoms (M:F = 59:53, mean age 11.4 +/- 1.5 years, range from 0.9 to 15.3 years old) were enrolled. All of them underwent upper endoscopic examination. Their parents and siblings were recruited to check the serum anti-H. pylori. The results showed 58 of 112 (51.7%) children were injected with H. pylori, while the remaining 54 children were not. To compare the H. pylori (+) and H. pylori (-) groups, we found differences in anti-H. pylori seropositive rates between their fathers (80.7% vs. 79.3%, p = 1.000), mothers (84.7% vs. 70.1%, p = 0.093) and siblings (47.0% vs. 23.0%, p = 0.259) were not statistically significant. In conclusion, the H. pylori seroprevalences between the families of H. pylori-infected and non-infected children were not different. A relatively high H. pylori seroprevalence in the background population may mask the difference. We might need a revised seroepidemiologic study in the future to further clarify this issue.
Department of Pediatric, National Taiwan University Hospital, 7 Chung-Shan South Road, Taipei 100, Taiwan.
Pei-Shin
PS
Chang
Yen-Hsuan
YH
Ni
Mei-Hwei
MH
Chang
D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D005190:Family; D005260:Female; D005767:Gastrointestinal Diseases; D016481:Helicobacter Infections / Q000635:transmission*; D016480:Helicobacter pylori / Q000276:immunology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D016036:Seroepidemiologic Studies