[Atrophy of the gastric mucosa and Helicobacter pylori]

The authors investigated the prevalence of Helicobacter pylori (H. p.) in atrophic gastritis in the antrum and/or in the corpus of the stomach (groups I-IV), as compared with mucosae without atrophy. Criteria for elimination were age under 50 years, a case-history of the use of antibiotics during the last 6 months and chronic ingestion of alcoholic beverages. Group IV was formed by probands with pernicious anaemia who were divided into sub-group IVa with atrophy of the corpus and sub-group IVb with atrophy of the corpus and antrum. It was revealed that in probands with pernicious anaemia the presence of H. p. is significantly reduced (p < 0.01) when atrophy was present not only in the corpus but also in the antrum. The authors concluded that atrophic changes in the corpus only do not have a significant effect on the presence of H. p. in the antrum. The presence of H. p. is significantly influenced in a negative sense only when atrophic changes, in particular total atrophy, affect the antral mucosa.