[Peptic ulcer and Helicobacter pylori. Comments on the authors' cases]

The presence of Helicobacter was tested on a group with antral or duodenal ulcer with or without gastritis, versus a group without gastric or duodenal pathology. Furthermore an open trial was performed between omeprazole and colloidal bismuth subcitrate (CBS) on patients similarly affected by peptic disease. Although CBS did eliminate Helicobacter in more than a half of patients, what was not obtained by omeprazole, this result did not mean a better control of peptic disease: in fact the omeprazole was remarkably more active in our series on clinical and endoscopic ground, whether the Helicobacter was present or not, and further studies are required to assess the real significance of Helicobacter pylori in the above conditions.