[Lower prevalence of Helicobacter pylori infection observed in patients with erosive esophagitis].

Objectives: To investigate the prevalence of helicobacter pylori infection and the histological type of gastritis in patients with erosive esophagitis and compare these findings with a control group without esophagitis.

Materials And Methods: Prospective study in the settings of a private clinic in Lima, Peru. Each esophagitis and control patient had two biopsies taken from the antrum, two from the corpus as well as two additional samples for the ureasa (CLO) test. If any of the samples was positive for helicobacter, the patient was considered infected. The histological type of gastritis was assessed in the biopsies.

Results: 140 adult patients (69% males, mean age 48 years) with endoscopically proven esophagitis and 140 control cases, matched by age and sex, were included. A lower prevalence of helicobacter infection was found in the esophagitis group (27 vs. 44% p= 0.004).The risk for esophagitis was also lower in the patients with helicobacter OR: 0.48 IC95% (0.28 - 0.82. A higher percentage of normal gastric histology was found in the patients with esophagitis (44 vs. 31% p= 0.036). In 16 patients the erosive esophagitis was developed "de novo", after the eradication of helicobacter.

Conclusions: A lower prevalence of helicobacter infection and a higher percentage of normal gastric mucosa were found in patients with endoscopic proven erosive esophagitis.