Helicobacter pylori infection and gastric metaplasia in the duodenum in China.

Biopsy specimens from antral and duodenal mucosa were obtained from 64 patients with active duodenal ulcer and from 78 with nonulcer dyspepsia. Gastric metaplasia in the duodenal bulb was more frequent in patients with duodenal ulcer (82.5%) than in patients with dyspepsia and duodenitis (53.1%) or in patients with dyspepsia without duodenitis (34.5%). Helicobacter pylori infection in the duodenal bulb was found more often in patients with moderate to severe gastric metaplasia (62.3%) than in patients with mild gastric metaplasia (20%). Therefore, patients from a developing country, China, showed the same relationship between duodenitis, gastric metaplasia, duodenal colonization with H. pylori, and duodenal ulcer previously demonstrated in developed countries.