The association between current Helicobacter pylori infection and coronary artery disease.
BACKGROUND
The role of Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) in the pathogenesis of coronary artery disease (CAD) is still controversial, and the relation between current H. pylori infection and CAD has not been fully examined. This study evaluated the relation between H. pylori infection as confirmed by gastroduodenoscopic biopsy and CAD.


METHODS
We determined the presence of H. pylori infections, via gastroduodenoscopy, in 88 patients of the normal coronary angiographic group and also in 175 patients of the CAD group, and the latter patients had more than 50% coronary stenosis angiographically demonstrated. We excluded those patients with a history of previous H. pylori eradication and/or malignancy. A small piece of tissue from the antrum, which was obtained by gastroduodenoscopic biopsy, was stained by Warthin-starry silver stain. We defined a negative staining result that there was no stained tissue in the sample and the stained tissue was also positive for H. pylori infection.


RESULTS
There was no significant difference, except for gender, age, smoking and high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-c), of the demographic and laboratory characteristics between the groups. Twenty seven (30.7%) patients of the normal control group and 71 (40.6%) patients of the CAD group were positive of H. pylori infection, yet there was no statistical difference. We angiographically followed up the 80 patients of the CAD group who were treated by percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) at 6 to 9 months after their primary intervention. Twenty two (37.9%) of the 58 patients of the H. pylori negative group and 10 (45.5%) of the 22 patients of the H. pylori positive group were treated with reintervention, but reintervention was also not significantly different between the group with H. pylori infection and the group without the infection.


CONCLUSIONS
These data indicated that H. pylori infection had a modest influence on CAD and progressive atheroma, but the showed a tendency to increase. Further studies are needed to evaluate the relationship between H. pylori infection and CAD.
Jin
Seung-Won
SW
Department of Internal Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea College of Medicine, Seoul Korea.
Her
Sung-Ho
SH
Lee
Jong-Min
JM
Yoon
Hee-Jeoung
HJ
Moon
Su-Jin
SJ
Kim
Pum-Joon
PJ
Baek
Sang-Hong
SH
Seung
Ki-Bae
KB
Kim
Jae-Hyung
JH
Kang
Sang-Bum
SB
Kim
Jae-Hi
JH
Kim
Keon-Yeop
KY
D000368:Aged; D015906:Angioplasty, Balloon, Coronary; D001706:Biopsy; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D017023:Coronary Angiography; D003324:Coronary Artery Disease / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000382:microbiology* / Q000628:therapy; D004384:Duodenoscopy; D005260:Female; D005773:Gastroscopy; D016481:Helicobacter Infections / Q000150:complications / Q000382:microbiology* / Q000473:pathology; D016480:Helicobacter pylori / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011706:Pyloric Antrum / Q000473:pathology; D013997:Time Factors