[Intragastric formation of ammonia in Campylobacter pylori associated gastritis. Diagnostic and pathogenetic significance].

The diagnostic relevance of measurement of ammonia (NH3) in not stimulated gastric juice in patients with campylobacter pylori associated gastritis (CPAG) is in discussion. The role of CP-urease induced NH3 in pathogenesis of active gastritis is unclear. In answering to this questions we evaluated the sensitivity and specifity of NH3-test and CLO-test in cases of CPAG (n = 50), non CPAG (n = 16) and normal gastric mucosa (n = 20). We found a 88% sensitivity and a 86% specifity for NH3-test, a sensitivity for CLO-test of 80% and a specifity rate of 87%. NH3-test correlated well with CLO-test (n = 51, p less than 0.01) and semiquantitative histological identification of CP (p less than 0.01, n = 22). On the other hand we tried to correlate the amount of NH3 in the gastric juice and the histological degree of gastritis activity (infiltration of leucocytes of the lamia propria) in CPAG (n = 78) and Non-CPAG (n = 32) and before and after therapy in CPAG (n = 9) with bismuthsubnitrate (2 g/d, 14 d). There was no correlation between the amount of NH3 and the degree of active chronic gastritis in patients with CPAG (with or without therapy) and patients with non CPAG. It seems that NH3 has a diagnostic but no pathogenetic role in the process of inflammatory activity of CPAG.