rate of prevalence of helicobacter pylori infection in primary gastric lymphoma patients referring to pathology centers of yazd

introduction: lymphomas as a group rank seventh as the most leading cause of death in cancers. stomach is the most common extra nodal site of primary lymphomas. on the other hand, new information demonstrates that malt lymphoma responds to helicobacter antibiotic therapy. we therefore decided to determine the frequency of distribution of helicobacter pylori infection in primary gastric lymphoma cases at the pathology centers of yazd and determine the relationship of helicobacter pylori infection with sex, age and chief complaint of these patients. methods: this was a case series and cross-sectional study and population included patients referring to pathology centers of yazd for whom diagnosis of primary gastric lymphoma had been suggested. required data was accumulated with assessment of pathology reports and hospital folders of patients. also, tissue blocks of studied patients were evaluated for presence or absence of helicobacter pylori. after completing the questionnaire, data was analyzed statistically using spss 13 , anova and fisher's exact tests. results: 28 patients were included in this study. prevalence of helicobacter pylori infection in the study group was 43.5% and more in female patients and patients aged above 45 years. helicobacter pylori infection was more in patients who had dyspepsia as their chief complaint and those with ulcer on endoscopy. also, the frequency was more in high grade lymphoma cases. conclusion: in this study we didn’t achieve a statistically significant correlation between primary gastric lymphoma and helicobacter pylori infection. we suggest further studies with larger number of cases to determine the prevalence of various grades of lymphoma and their relationship with helicobacter pylori in other provinces with conditions similar to yazd.