title: Prevalence of Helicobacter spp in chronic cholecystitis and correlation with changes on the histological pattern of the gallbladder.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Establish the prevalence of Helicobacter spp in chronic cholecystitis and its correlation with the gallbladder's histological findings.
  
  
  METHODS
  100 patients were operated for chronic cholecystitis with cholecystolithiasis. In pathological examination of the gallbladder, were evaluated the presence of metaplasia, dysplasia, lymphoid follicles, anaplasia and tumors that might be related to the presence of Helicobacter plus the presence of the bacilli Giemsa(+) by optical microscopy. From the DNA extracted from the gallbladder's bile, PCR was performed by using specific primers for the identification of Helicobacter spp with amplification of the 400bp segment of rRNA gene16S, with positive control DNA from Helicobacter pylori. All the cases negative for isolation of genetic material were excluded. The cases of PCRTheta and GiemsaTheta were used as negative control group. The histological findings were compared to the presence of bacilli and PCR data using a chi-square and Fisher's Exact test (CI = 95.0%, p <0.05).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of 68 patients, 42 (61.8%) were PCR(+) for Helicobacter spp and 19 (27.9%) had Giemsa(+). There was no correlation between the two findings. The PCR(+) for Helicobacter spp was not correlated to the histological findings. The presence of lymphoid follicles and metaplasia was related to the Giemsa(+) (p = 0.025 and p= 0.039).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  There is high prevalence of Helicobacter spp in patients with chronic cholecystitis and cholecystolithiasis without be correlated with the histological patterns studied.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Santa Casa School of Medicine, São Paulo, Brazil. amoricz@uol.com.br <amoricz@uol.com.br>
authors.forename: André de
authors.initials: Ad
authors.lastname: Moricz
authors.forename: Murilo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Melo
authors.forename: Ana Maria
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Castro
authors.forename: Tercio
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Campos
authors.forename: Rodrigo Altenfelder
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Silva
authors.forename: Adhemar Monteiro
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Pacheco
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D002764:Cholecystitis / Q000382:microbiology* / Q000473:pathology; D002908:Chronic Disease; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000032:analysis; D005260:Female; D005704:Gallbladder / Q000382:microbiology / Q000473:pathology; D042882:Gallstones / Q000473:pathology; D016998:Helicobacter / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D004269:DNA, Bacterial