Preliminary study on the microbiology of Campylobacter pyloridis and gastric histopathology

Biopsy samples were taken endoscopically from the antral-mucosa of 693 patients with peptic ulcer and chronic gastritis presenting dyspepsia symptoms. Campylobacter pyloridis cultures were positive in 59 of 98 (60.2%) cases and histopathologically the organisms were found in 411 of 693 cases (59.3%). Pathologically, Campylobacter pyloridis was positive in 273 out of 300 patients with chronic superficial gastritis (91.0%), in 102 of 249 patients with chronic atrophic gastritis (40.9%), in 36 out of 144 patients with chronic atrophic gastritis with intestinalization or dysplasia (25.0%). We found that there was a significant association between the presence of Campylobacter pyloridis and chronic superficial gastritis, also the degree of lymphocyte infiltration showed a strong inverse association with the presence of Campylobacter pyloridis, suggesting that a local immune response might exert an important action in the eradication of this organism. These findings support the view that Campylobacter pyloridis, may be etiologically related to chronic gastritis and peptic ulceration, even though its role still remains to be determined.