Prevalence of Helicobacter pylori and occurrence of gastroduodenal lesions in patients with liver cirrhosis.

BACKGROUND/AIMS The role of H. pylori in the pathogenesis of ulcer disease in cirrhotic patients is poorly defined. Therefore, we sought to investigate the prevalence of H. pylori infection and the occurrence of gastroduode-nal lesions in patients with liver cirrhosis. METHODS AND PATIENTS Seroprevalence of H. pylori was tested in 110 patients with liver cirrhosis and 44 asymptomatic patients with chronic hepatitis without cirrhosis using an anti-H. pylori-IgG-ELISA. Cirrhotic patients underwent upper intestinal endoscopy for macroscopic and histological evaluation of gastric mucosa, and for the detection of mucosal colonisation of H. pylori using Giemsa staining and urease test. RESULTS There was no significant difference between the H. pylori seroprevalence in patients with liver cirrhosis (76/110; 69%) and patients with chronic viral hepatitis (27/44, 63%, p=0.465). Gastric mucosal colonization with H. pylori in cirrhotic patients was significantly lower than the serologically determined H. pylori prevalence (45% vs. 69%, p=0.001). Etiology of liver cirrhosis did not influence the prevalence of H. pylori infection. 8 of 110 cirrhotic patients had gastric ulcers and 10 had duodenal ulcers. 61% of cirrhotic patients with peptic ulcers were asymptomatic. H. pylori was histologically identified in 61% of gastroduodenal ulcers, and 47% of gastroduodenal erosions. CONCLUSIONS Patients with liver cirrhosis have a high prevalence of gastroduodenal ulcers. The lack of a firm association between H. pylori prevalence and ulcer frequency in cirrhotic patients argues against a pivotal role of H. pylori in the etiology of ulcers in cirrhotic patients.