Helicobacter pylori in Gastric Mucosal Biopsies in a Tertiary Care Hospital – An Institutional Experience

Introduction: Helicobacter pylori is the main cause of chronic gastritis, peptic ulcer diseases, gastric cancer, and gastric MALT lymphoma. Studies show that the prevalence of H. pylori infection in the Indian population ranges from 31% to 84%. We undertook this retrospective study to determine the prevalence of H. pylori in gastric biopsies obtained routinely from patients during upper gastrointestinal endoscopy for clinical indications and to compare the density of H. pylori with various histomorphological features in the gastric biopsies. Subjects and Methods: Gastric mucosal biopsies done for patients with dyspepsia and other upper gastrointestinal symptoms who presented to the medical gastroenterology outpatient department at our tertiary corporate hospital were reviewed retrospectively for histopathological changes and H. pylori positivity. Results: Among the 351 patients from whom biopsies were reviewed, the average prevalence of H pylori was 12.4%. We found a significant association between age and presence of H pylori ( p = 0.004). There was also significant association between H. Pylori and degree of inflammation and degree of activity with p < 0.001. However there was no significant association of H pylori with atrophy and intestinal metaplasia. Conclusions: Endoscopy findings in H. pylori gastritis did not correlate with histological changes. In this study we report a H. pylori prevalence of 12.4% among routine gastric biopsies done in a tertiary care hospital.