Helicobacter pylori--some what, why, and how morphologic issues.

This paper questions, and attempts to answer or speculate on, some of the morphologic questions about Helicobacter pylori in the stomach and duodenum. These include whether H. pylori can survive intact through the entire intestine, why organisms are found between rather than over the entire cells, why pedestals are relatively infrequent, possible advantages of attachment rather than a luminal existence, the nature of the inflammatory cascade from chronic inflammation to local erosion, possible mechanisms by which H. pylori causes chronic duodenitis, and the different ways that gastric metaplasia can occur in the duodenum.