Functional Dyspepsia and Helicobacter pylori Infection

Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) was first observed over 100 years ago yet its association with clinical diseases was not fully understanding until 1982 when Marshall and Warren identified and subsequently cultured the gastric bacterium. At their first attempt to culture the bacteria was not successful. Colonies finally grew when they accidentally left some culture plates over the Easter holiday. Dr. Barry Marshall subsequently inoculated himself with culture broth containing more than 1 billion organism to prove that this bacterium would cause peptic ulcers supporting Koch’s postulate. He developed acute gastritis 1 week after the inoculation. H. pylori is a microaerophilic, spiral shaped, gram negative bacterium measuring about 3.5 microns in length and 0.5 microns in width. In vitro, this bacterium is a gradually growing organism that can be cultured on blood agar incubated at 37oC in a microaerophilic condition (5% oxygen) for 4-7 days. The colony of this bacteria is tiny, uniformly sized and translucence (fig 2A).