Prevalence of Helicobacter pylori infection and gastric intestinal metaplasia in Greek patients.

BACKGROUND

Knowledge of the local prevalence of Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection and gastric intestinal metaplasia (GIM) is imperative in screening the population for gastric cancer. The aim of our study was to estimate the histopathological prevalence of H. pylori infection and GIM in Greek patients.

METHODS

This was a single-center retrospective study. The age, sex, endoscopic diagnosis, the presence of H. pylori gastritis and the presence of either complete or incomplete GIM, were extracted from the medical reports of our study group and stored in Microsoft Excel. The analysis was focused on the epidemiologic behavior of 2 histologic diagnoses: the presence of H. pylori gastritis and GIM.

RESULTS

H. pylori gastritis was recorded in 910 of the 2343 patients studied (38.8%, 95% confidence interval [CI] 36.8-40.8%). GIM was found in 601 of 2317 patients (25.9%, 95%CI 24.2-27.8%). The prevalence of incomplete GIM was 15.2%. These results are consistent with those observed in other European countries.

CONCLUSIONS

This study is the first large Greek study to estimate the histopathological prevalence of H. pylori infection and GIM in a population from a primary care gastrointestinal unit. There was a strong association between H. pylori infection and the development of GIM. H. pylori were more prevalent in non-operated stomachs compared with operated. There was no difference in the prevalence of GIM between operated and non-operated stomachs.