Assessment of Campylobacter-like organisms in the postoperative stomach, iatrogenic gastritis, and chronic gastroduodenal diseases: preliminary observations.

Campylobacter-like organisms (provisionally named C. pyloridis) were demonstrated in gastric biopsy specimens by histopathologic analysis and bacterial culture. C. pyloridis organisms were found in 12 of 26 patients (46%) with gastric or duodenal ulcer but in none of 10 healthy volunteers without histologic evidence of gastritis. Iatrogenic antral gastritis, induced by 7 days of treatment with nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, was not associated with the presence of C. pyloridis. Organisms were found in 6 of 24 patients who had undergone gastric operations, but the prevalence of C. pyloridis was not higher in those with symptoms of alkaline reflux gastritis than in asymptomatic postgastrectomy control patients. We conclude that C. pyloridis is less common in patients with drug-induced and postoperative gastritis than in patients with peptic ulcer.