Peptic disease and Helicobacter pylori are highly prevalent in patients with the indeterminate form of chagas’ disease: report of 21 cases

• Main Authors: Luiz Carlos Marques de OLIVEIRA, Abadia Gilda BUSO, Luiz SIQUEIRA FILHO, Flávia MORAES, Humberto Alves OLIVEIRA, Roseli Maria OLIVEIRA, Eliana Chaves SALOMÃO
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Universidade de São Paulo (USP) 1997
• Subjects: Chagas’disease; Helicobacter pylori; Chronic gastritis; Peptic ulcer; Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine; RC955-962; Infectious and parasitic diseases; RC109-216; Arctic
• Online Access: https://doaj.org/article/4f9cde226c9e4d2c81f9aaf7dbbd5b31

Given that chagasic patients in the indeterminate form of this disease, can have abnormal motility of the digestive tract and immunologic abnormalities, we decided to assess the frequency of peptic disease and Helicobacter pylori (Hp) infection in these individuals. Twenty-one individuals, 13 males and 8 females, mean age 37.6 ± 11.1 years, were examined. Biopsies of the duodenum, antrum, lesser and greater gastric curvature and esophagus were performed. The endoscopic findings were of chronic gastritis in 20 (95.2%) patients, duodenal ulcer in 3 (14.3%), gastric and duodenal ulcer in 3 (14.3%), gastric ulcer alone in 1 (4.8%), esophagitis in 5 (23.8%), and duodenitis in 5 (23.8%). The diagnosis of infection by the Hp was done by the urease test and histologic examination. Hp infection was found in 20 (95.2%) individuals: in 20 out of them in the antrum, in 17 in the lesser curvature, and in 17 in the greater curvature. Hp was not found in the esophagus and duodenum. The only individual with no evidence of infection by Hp was also the only one with normal endoscopic and histologic examinations. The histologic examinations confirmed the diagnoses of gastric ulcer as peptic, chronic gastritis in 20 patients, duodenitis in 14, and esophagitis in 9. In this series the patients had a high frequency of peptic disease, which was closely associated with Hp infection