Helicobacter pylori and smoking: two additive risk factors for organic dyspepsia

The hopes to distinguish between organic and functional dyspepsia on the grounds of the patient's symptomatology have not been fulfilled due to the low specificity of the so-called sinister symptoms. There is increasing evidence accumulating that Helicobacter pylori status and other environmental factors such as smoking have a higher discriminant power. Studies performed in our laboratories testing H. pylori status on gastric biopsy samples have shown that preselection of patients according to smoking habits and H. pylori status has a higher potential in avoiding unnecessary endoscopies in primary care patients as compared to risk factors based on patient complaints. Out of a total population of 282 primary care patients, one out of 24 endoscopies revealed significant pathology such as peptic ulcer or reflux esophagitis in the non-smokers with a negative H. pylori status, but when both risk factors were positive, the percentage rose to one out of every two patients. These observation have largely been confirmed by recent studies where H. pylori status was prospectively assessed prior to endoscopy by highly specific H. pylori serology or 13C breath test analysis.