Empirical rescue therapy after Helicobacter pylori treatment failure: a 10-year single-centre study of 500 patients.

Background: Several 'rescue' therapies have been recommended to eradicate Helicobacter pylori, but they still fail in >20% of the cases, and these patients constitute a therapeutic dilemma.

Aim: To evaluate the efficacy of different 'rescue' therapies empirically prescribed during 10 years to 500 patients in whom at least one eradication regimen had failed to cure H. pylori infection.

Helicobacter pylori and idiopathic chronic urticaria.

Background: Different studies have shown a high prevalence of Helicobacter pylori (HP) infection in patients with chronic urticaria (CU), and occasional remission of the skin lesions after eradication therapy. Recent investigations, however, have failed to find a significant relationship between the two conditions. We designed a case-control study to assess the prevalence of HP infection and the effect of bacterium eradication on the outcome of the skin disease in patients affected by CU.

[A comparative analysis of diagnostic methods for Helicobacter pylori infection in children].

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the usefulness of five diagnostic tests for Helicobacter pylori (Hp) infection in children.

Patients And Methods: Sixty-five children with epigastric pain, recurrent abdominal pain, regurgitation, diarrhoea, anemia and insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus were investigated. Endoscopic biopsies from gastric antrum were performed and examined by the urease rapid test, histological examination and microbiological culture.

[C13 urea breath test in the diagnosis of Helicobacter pylori infection in the gastric mucosa. Validation of the method].

Helicobacter pylori has been implicated as an agent in the pathogenesis of antral gastritis, gastric and duodenal ulcer and probably in gastric cancer. The C13 urea breath test is a diagnostic method quick to perform, sensitive, reliable and non invasive. It is based on the presence of Helicobacter pylori urease activity, which permits to detect it in the infected mucosa.

[The usefulness of determining antigliadin IgA antibodies for the detection and follow-up of adult celiac disease].

Antibodies to gliadin IgA (IgA-AGA) were detected by enzyme-linked-immunosorbent-technique (ELISA) in 30 healthy controls, 20 coeliac patients and 25 patients with non coeliac malabsorption. All the controls had levels of IgA-AGA in the normal range (25AV). Three of the 25 patients with non coeliac malabsorption presented high titres of IgA-AGA.