Campylobacter-like organisms and gastritis: histopathology, bile reflux, and gastric fluid composition

We studied a prospective series of 107 randomly chosen dyspepsia patients without gastric ulcer for the association of spiral Campylobacter-like organisms (CLO) with features of antral and fundal gastritis and duodenogastric reflux. CLO were observed in 38% of the patients. The scores for all classes of inflammatory cells in both antral and body mucosa were significantly higher in the CLO-positive patients than in the CLO-negative ones (p less than 0.001), and foveolar hyperplasia was also associated with CLO (p less than 0.05). Metaplasia and glandular atrophy in the antral mucosa were significantly commoner in the CLO-positive group (p less than 0.05 and p less than 0.01, respectively). The body gastritis score correlated significantly with age in the CLO-negative patients (R = 0.33, p less than 0.01) but not in the CLO-positive ones. There were no significant differences between the groups with regard to duodenogastric reflux or intragastric pH. The results confirm that CLO are associated with gastritis, most notably superficial gastritis in the body and atrophic gastritis in the antrum, but their aetiological significance remains to be proved.