Helicobacter pylori and intestinal metaplasia.

Gastric carcinoma of the intestinal type is assumed to develop from precancerous gastric lesions. It is now widely accepted that Helicobacter pylori (HP) infection causes chronic gastritis and, after a period of time, intestinal metaplasia (IM). It was suggested that these gastric lesions may evolve into gastric carcinoma after a lengthy latency period. HP seropositivity is high in Turkey at early ages. This may explain the high incidence of gastric carcinoma in this geographic region. In this study, we examine the relationship between HP and IM in endoscopic gastric biopsy specimens. We examined 840 biopsies taken from 210 patients. HP positivity and the presence of IM were examined in these specimens by histopathologic methods. HP positivity was also determined by CLO testing. HP was positive in 156 of the 210 patients examined (74.3%). The distribution of HP seropositivity did not differ between age groups (p > 0.05). IM was present in 101 patients in the entire study group (48%). Among the 156 HP-positive patients, the rate of IM was 44.8% (n = 70). The rate of IM among the 54 HP-negative patients was 57.4% (n = 31), which was not statistically significant (p > 0.05). IM positivity has been shown to increase in older age, which was statistically significant (p < 0.001). We were not able to show a relationship between HP seropositivity and IM. Increased HP seropositivity at an early age is a common risk factor in our population. We must consider other factors that may contribute to the increased rate of IM in older age groups.