Colonization by and of Antral Biopsy Specimens from Gastritis Patients Uninfected with .

Purpose: Roles and incidence of some microorganisms that transiently or permanently colonize the human stomach are still unknown despite advances in gastroenterology. We aimed to examine the incidence of four microorganisms, , and , in the antral biopsy specimens of patients with gastroduodenal conditions.

Patients And Methods: Patients (67 females, 33 males; mean age = 49.5 years) were initially examined and diagnosed by a gastroenterologist at the Mehrad Hospital, Tehran, Iran. We enrolled those who underwent the upper gastrointestinal endoscopy because of gastroduodenal conditions. Two antral biopsy samples were taken by endoscopy; the first sample was used for the "rapid urease test" to confirm . The second was used for DNA extraction and PCR analyses with specific, corresponding primer sets to establish the presence of the four microorganisms. Our study was approved by the Ethics Committee at the Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran.

Results: Based on pathology and endoscopy findings, we divided the patients into three groups: 62 presented with gastritis, 18 with duodenal ulcer, and 20 gastric ulcer. The number of patients with but without significantly differed from the number of those co-infected with both microorganisms (P = 0.03). Additionally, a similar significance was found between the incidence of in patients without and those with both infections (P = 0.04). Our results indicated that a significant number of patients with gastritis were colonized with or without being co-infected with (P < 0.001). Interestingly, the incidence of colonization by of patients without (45/49, 91.8%) was higher than that by (28/49, 57%).

Conclusion: The number of patients without but with or with infection significantly differed from that with both infections, respectively. Our study thus shows that patients without infection are prone to be colonized by or , indicating that targeted antibiotic regimens are necessary for clinically treating them.