Heavy bacterial loads of H. pylori may precipitate duodenal ulcer bleeding but not bleeding severity.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: To determine whether severity of Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection is aggravated during acute duodenal ulcer bleeding and related to bleeding severity.

METHODOLOGY: One hundred and thirty-eight patients with H. pylori-infected bleeding duodenal ulcer and 112 non-bleeding cases were included in the study. A comparison was made of the anti-H. pylori IgG titer, endoscopic finding, density of H. pylori (range: 1-5) in the antrum, and severity of antral gastritis (score: 0-3) between bleeding and non-bleeding cases. The role of H. pylori in bleeding cases was further analyzed to survey its relationship to the severity of bleeding judged by clinical parameters. The H. pylori status of patients with rebleeding within the first week was compared to that of the non-rebleeding cases as well.

RESULTS

The anti-H. pylori IgG titer and H. pylori density of the non-bleeding group were lower than those of the bleeding group (0.466+/-0.288 vs. 0.912+/-0.559, p<0.001; 2.13+/-1.02 vs. 3.34+/-1.32, p<0.001). The percentages of bleeding ulcers in the study cases increased in a trend as the density of H. pylori increased (density: 1-5; 32.7%, 33.8%, 57.4%, 81.3%, 91.4%, p<0.001). Although the severity of gastritis and density of H. pylori disclosed an upward trend as bleeding severity increased, only ulcer size was significantly associated with bleeding severity (p<0.05). The 10 cases with recurrent bleeding had higher bacterial density and serological titer than the 128 non-rebleeding cases (p<0.005).

CONCLUSIONS

Heavy bacterial loads of H. pylori infection may precipitate bleeding episodes of duodenal ulcer. However, in bleeding duodenal ulcer, the status of H. pylori infection is not strongly associated with initial bleeding severity before therapeutic endoscopy. With the aim of enhancing hemostasis and preventing rebleeding, further studies could focus on diminishing the bacterial load of H. pylori during bleeding episodes.