Helicobacter pylori associated gastric pathology in patients with type II diabetes mellitus and its relationship with gastric emptying: the Ankara study.

Helicobacter pylori (HP) is the most common cause of nonerosive nonspecific gastritis. Gastric and duadenal ulcer both are found to be associated with HP infection. Another consequence of HP infection is that it may progress to chronic atrophic gastritis which is a well recognized risk factor for adenocarcinoma of the stomach. So by extension, HP infection can be accepted as a risk factor for gastric cancer. From this aspect, identification of risk groups is increasingly important. It is well-known that patients with diabetes mellitus are more prone to infection. Besides this, presence of gastroparesis diabeticorum may lead to bacterial overgrowth in the upper gastrointestinal (GI) tract. The present crossectional study was planned to study the presence of HP infection in diabetic patients with alterations in upper GI motility and to compare the results with healthy control group. Group I consisted of 51 patients with type II diabetes mellitus (as defined by National Data Group criteria) without any dyspeptic symptoms. Twenty-five age-matched healthy people served as a control in group II. Radionuclide-labelled solid meals were used to calculate gastric emptying time (GET). According to the results, patients in group I were divided into two groups. Patients with prolonged GET were grouped as group IA, while group IB consisted of patients with normal or shortened GET. Presence of HP gastritis is determined by histopathologic examination of endoscopic biopsy specimen. The results showed that the prevalence of HP gastritis in group I and II were 80.4% and 56% respectively and the difference was significant statistically (p: 0.03). In group IA, the prevalence of HP infection was estimated to be 88.2%, while in group IB it was 76.5% but the difference was not significant (p: 0.31). We have not found any correlation between HbA1c levels and the presence of HP infection in both group IA and IB (p values 0.26 and 0.15 respectively). We conclude that the prevalence of HP gastritis is higher in asymptomatic diabetic patients compared with healthy people. But there is no association between the alterations in GET and the presence of HP gastritis as indicated by our results. So prolonged GET may not be regarded as a specific pathogenic mechanism or a cause of HP infection in NIDDM patients.