Prevalence of Helicobacter pylori in long-term dialysis patients

Background and Aims: Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) has been reported to play an important role in the development of gastritis and gastric ulcer. Here we report the prevalence of H. pylori infection in 87 hemodialysis (HD) patients.

Methods: In the present study we investigated the prevalence of H. pylori infection in 87 HD patients by three methods: serum anti-H. pylori IgG, H. pylori stool antigen (HpSAg) and Urease Breath Test (UBT). All the three methods confirmed each other and when 2 out of the 3 methods showed positive findings, patients were regarded as H. pylori -positive. We also assessed the relationship between clinical factors, serum urea nitrogen, creatinine levels, and duration of dialysis, age and gender with the prevalence H. pylori in these patients.

Results: Eighty seven HD patients (48 male and 39 female) with the mean age of 54.4±16.7 years old and mean dialysis duration of 36.2±33.5 months were assessed. Fifty five (63.2%) of them had dyspepsia. The prevalence of H. pylori infection was 44.8%. Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed the serum urea nitrogen level was significantly associated with H. pylori prevalence (P=0.03, 95% CI: 1.4-35.8). High serum urea nitrogen seems to correlate with a high prevalence of H. pylori infection. The prevalence of H. pylori infection was low in young patients, but high in elderly patients (P=0.04, 95%CI: 0.97-10.3). There was no significant correlation between gender, duration of dialysis, serum Cholesterol, Triglyceride, creatinine, Hemoglobin, albumin, calcium and phosphor and H. pylori infection in these patients.

Conclusions: Among dialysis patients, the proportion of H. pylori-positive patients was not low. Dialysis treatment may influence H. pylori infection.