Seroprevalence of Helicobacter pylori infection in chronic chagasic patients, and in the rural and urban population from Uberlândia, Minas Gerais, Brazil

• Main Authors: Rubens Silva NASCIMENTO, Selma Regina Guerra VALENTE, Luiz Carlos Marques de OLIVEIRA
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Universidade de São Paulo (USP) 2002
• Subjects: Chagas disease; Helicobacter pylori; Prevalence; Epidemiology; Minas Gerais; Brazil; Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine; RC955-962; Infectious and parasitic diseases; RC109-216; Arctic
• Online Access: https://doaj.org/article/b06c345aa88b42d8b4c5f02e533252d4

As patients with chronic Chagas disease exhibit morphological and functional changes of the stomach (hypomotility and hypochlorhydria), malnutrition, immunological deficiency and high prevalence of peptic disease associated to Helicobater pylori infection, the purpose of this study was to evaluate if the prevalence of H. pylori infection in chronic chagasic is higher than in non-chagasic individuals in the urban and rural population from Uberlândia, MG, Brazil. Serological determination of IgG antibodies to H. pylori was performed using a second-generation ELISA. Thus, 598 people were evaluated: 128 chagasic (CG), 222 non-chagasic living in urban area (U-NCG) and 248 non-chagasic living in rural area (R-NCG). Regarding the age range from 21 to 50 years, the prevalence of H. pylori infection in the CG (85.1%) was significantly higher than in the U-NCG (56.3%, p < 0.01) and the R-NCG (67.4%, p < 0.05). In the patients over 50 years, the prevalence in the CG (86.4%) was similar to the U-NCG (78.8%) and R-NCG (86.1%). Similar results were also found between the U-NCG and R-NCG for all age ranges, with prevalence rates of 29.1% and 35.3% for the age range from 5 to 13 years, and 47.2% and 40% for that from 14 to 20 years, respectively. We conclude that chagasic patients showed a higher seroprevalence of H. pylori infection than non-chagasic individuals, in the age range from 21 to 50 years, and that the prevalence of this infection was similar in the studied urban and rural non-chagasic population.