title: Helicobacter pylori protection against reflux esophagitis.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Negative association has been reported between presence of Helicobacter pylori and developing gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) and its complications. The aim of this study was to determine whether H. pylori (HP) can be protective against GERD in an African American (AA) population.
  
  
  METHODS
  From 2004 to 2007, we studied 2,020 cases; esophagitis (58), gastritis (1,558), both esophagitis and gastritis (363) and a normal control group (41). We collected their pathology and endoscopy unit reports. HP status was determined based on staining of gastric biopsy.
  
  
  RESULTS
  HP data was available for 79 % (1,611) of the cases. The frequency of HP positivity in gastritis patients was 40 % (506), in esophagitis patients 4 % and in normal controls 34 % (11), while HP was positive in 34 % of the patients with both esophagitis and gastritis. After adjusting for effects of age and sex, odds ratio of HP was 0.06 (95 % CI 0.01-0.59; P value = 0.01) for the esophagitis group versus the normal group.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our results show H. pylori has a significant negative association with esophagitis in AAs which may point to a protective role of H. pylori in the pathogenesis of esophagitis. In addition, H. pylori may be the reason for the low GERD complications in AAs.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Cancer Center, Howard University Cancer Center, Howard University Hospital, Rm #320, 2041 Georgia Ave., Washington, DC 20059, USA. hashktorab@howard.edu
authors.forename: Hassan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ashktorab
authors.forename: Omid
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Entezari
authors.forename: Mehdi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nouraie
authors.forename: Ehsan
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Dowlati
authors.forename: Wayne
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Frederick
authors.forename: Alfreda
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Woods
authors.forename: Edward
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Hassan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Brim
authors.forename: Duane T
authors.initials: DT
authors.lastname: Smoot
authors.forename: Firoozeh
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Ghadyari
authors.forename: Farin
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Kamangar
authors.forename: Hadie
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Razjouyan
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001741:Black or African American / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001706:Biopsy; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D005260:Female; D005764:Gastroesophageal Reflux / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000208:ethnology*; D005773:Gastroscopy; D016481:Helicobacter Infections / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000208:ethnology*; D016480:Helicobacter pylori; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric