Herpes simplex virus type 1 in peptic ulcer disease: an inverse association with Helicobacter pylori.
OBJECTIVE
To assess the frequency of herpes simplex virus type I in upper gastrointestinal tract ulcers and normal mucosa with the modern and better assays and also with a larger number of well characterized patients and controls and its relationship to Helicobacter pylori(H pylori).


METHODS
Biopsy specimens from 90 patients (34 with gastric ulcer of the prepyloric area and 56 with duodenal ulcer) were evaluated. Biopsies from 50 patients with endoscopically healthy mucosa were considered as the control group. The method used to identify herpes simplex virus-1 (HSV-1) was polymerase chain reaction. H pylori was detected by the CLO-test and by histological method.


RESULTS
Herpes simplex virus-1 was detected in 28 of 90 patients with peptic ulcer (31%) [11 of 34 patients with gastric ulcer (32.4%) and 17 of 56 with duodenal ulcer (30.4%)] exclusively close to the ulcerous lesion. All control group samples were negative for HSV-1. The likelihood of H pylori negativity among peptic ulcer patients was significantly higher in HSV-1 positive cases than in HSV-1 negative cases (P = 0.009). Gastric ulcer patients with HSV-1 positivity were strongly associated with an increased possibility of Helicobacter pylori negativity compared to duodenal ulcer patients (P = 0.010).


CONCLUSIONS
HSV-1 is frequent in upper gastro-intestinal tract ulcers but not in normal gastric and duodenal mucosa. There is an inverse association between HSV-1 and H pylori infection.
Tsamakidis
Klisthenis
K
Department of Gastroenterology, Agios Savvas Hospital, Parnasou 35, GR-152 34 Athens, Greece.
Panotopoulou
Efstathia
E
Dimitroulopoulos
Dimitrios
D
Xinopoulos
Dimitrios
D
Christodoulou
Maria
M
Papadokostopoulou
Alexandra
A
Karagiannis
Ioannis
I
Kouroumalis
Elias
E
Paraskevas
Emmanuel
E
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001706:Biopsy; D005260:Female; D005753:Gastric Mucosa / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000382:microbiology / Q000821:virology; D016481:Helicobacter Infections / Q000382:microbiology / Q000473:pathology; D016480:Helicobacter pylori / Q000378:metabolism*; D018259:Herpesvirus 1, Human / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010437:Peptic Ulcer / Q000382:microbiology / Q000473:pathology / Q000821:virology*; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012307:Risk Factors; D013223:Statistics as Topic