title: Low prevalence of H. pylori infection in patients with gastroparesis.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The histopathology of the gastric mucosa in patients with gastroparesis, a condition characterized by gastric retention without obstruction, has not been described.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To test the hypothesis that reactive gastropathy is more common in patients with gastroparesis than in subjects with normal gastric motility.
  
  
  METHODS
  We compared the prevalence of reactive gastropathy, Helicobacter pylori infection, chronic gastritis, and intestinal metaplasia in patients with and without a clinical diagnosis of gastroparesis extracted from a national database of subjects with gastric biopsies (1/2008-6/2012).
  
  
  RESULTS
  There were 3040 patients with gastroparesis (median age 58 years, 67.3% women) and 575,895 controls (median age 57 years, 62.0% women) with no evidence of gastroparesis. Reactive gastropathy was marginally more prevalent in patients with gastroparesis (18.9%) than in controls (17.0%). In contrast, H. pylori gastritis was present in 10.8% of controls, but only in 5.9% patients with gastroparesis (OR 0.52; 95% CI 0.45-0.61). Intestinal metaplasia was also less common in patients with gastroparesis (2.8% versus 3.9%; OR 0.82; 95% CI 0.58-0.89).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The low prevalence of H. pylori infection in gastroparesis could be explained by higher rates of previous eradication, conditions unfavourable to the survival of H. pylori, or a protective effect of mucosal inflammation against the development of motility disorders.
authors.affiliation: Miraca Life Sciences Research Institute, Miraca Life Sciences, Irving, TX, United States.
authors.forename: Mauricio
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Salicru
authors.forename: Dolores
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Juarez
authors.forename: Robert M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Genta
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001706:Biopsy; D005260:Female; D005753:Gastric Mucosa / Q000382:microbiology* / Q000473:pathology; D018589:Gastroparesis / Q000150:complications* / Q000175:diagnosis; D005773:Gastroscopy; D016481:Helicobacter Infections / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000382:microbiology / Q000473:pathology; D016480:Helicobacter pylori / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015995:Prevalence; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Gastroparesis; Helicobacter pylori; Intestinal metaplasia; Reactive gastropathy