Seroepidemiology Study of Helicobacter pylori Infection and Its Effect on Cardiovascular Diseases in Karaj, Iran.

Helicobacter pylori infection occurs throughout the world between countries and races. A seroprevalence study of H. pylori infection in the occurrence of atherosclerosis (ASc) has been considered to be the main cause of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) in part of Iran. From 600 volunteers, 97 serum samples were selected and tested for the presence of H. pylori infection. Positive and negative H. pylori infection samples were then selected for Chlamydia pneumonia and cytomegalovirus infection. Their serum levels for high-sensitive C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) and IL-6 titer were measured using an ELISA test. Prevalence of H. pylori infection was ∼68.04% in Karaj. Among the 22 samples of cytokine titration, 4 individuals were HP- and 18 were HP+. It was also noticed that 17 samples had normal titration (77.27%) of IL-6 and 3 had a high level of IL-6 (13.63%), 20 people had high hs-CRP titration (90.90%), and 2 were low level hs-CRP (9.1%). Obtained results showed that there is no significant difference between HP+ and HP- infection and IL-6 and hs-CRP titration. Results showed that H. pylori could not lead to ASc by increasing the levels of proinflammatory cytokines such as IL-6 and hs-CRP. Further studies are necessary for the detection of mechanism of H. pylori on ASc.