Prevalence of Helicobacter pylori in Georgian patients with dyspepsia.
BACKGROUND
Georgia has showed a high prevalence of peptic ulcer disease (PUD), but the prevalence of Helicobacter pylori in this country is practically unknown. The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence of H. pylori and specific genotypes in different populations in Georgia.


METHODS
We studied 62 patients from several hospitals in Tbilisi, Georgia. More than 55% of patients had PUD. We determined H. pylori presence as well as specific genotypes cagA and vacA by polymerase chain reaction. In addition, we studied serum samples from 94 healthy persons to determine H. pylori and CagA prevalence by ELISA.


RESULTS
We found a high prevalence of H. pylori and CagA in the healthy population (70.2 and 57.4%, respectively) and a high prevalence of CagA among the H. pylori-positive persons (71.2%). Prevalence increased with age as reported in other countries (p = .05). Among symptomatic persons, we found nearly the same high prevalence of H. pylori (64.5%) as in the asymptomatic population. Furthermore, in symptomatic H. pylori patients, we found 65.0 and 67.5% prevalence of cagA and vacA, respectively. For 33 patients with PUD, 24 patients (72.7%) were H. pylori positive and 66.7% of them were cagA positive. In contrast, among the patients with non-ulcer dyspepsia (NUD), 16 (55.2%) were H. pylori positive and 62.5% of them were colonized with cagA-positive strains. H. pylori and cagA prevalence were not significantly different between PUD and patients with NUD.


CONCLUSIONS
We confirmed that among individuals in Georgia, the prevalence of H. pylori is high and cagA-positive strains were equally present among H. pylori-positive patients with PUD and NUD and asymptomatic persons.
Department of Medicine, NYUSM, New York, USA.
Asalia
A
Olivares
Merab
M
Buadze
Tina
T
Kutubidze
Manana
M
Lobjanidze
Levani
L
Labauri
Ramaz
R
Kutubidze
Daredjan
D
Chikviladze
Manana
M
Zhvania
Omar
O
Kharzeishvili
Nodar
N
Lomidze
Guillermo I
GI
Perez-Perez
D000328:Adult; D000907:Antibodies, Bacterial / Q000097:blood; D000942:Antigens, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics; D004415:Dyspepsia / Q000382:microbiology*; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D005260:Female; D005846:Georgia (Republic) / Q000453:epidemiology; D016481:Helicobacter Infections / Q000453:epidemiology*; D016480:Helicobacter pylori / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010437:Peptic Ulcer / Q000382:microbiology*; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D015995:Prevalence
D000907:Antibodies, Bacterial; D000942:Antigens, Bacterial; D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D004269:DNA, Bacterial; C074689:VacA protein, Helicobacter pylori; C080866:cagA protein, Helicobacter pylori