Campylobacter pylori in peptic ulcer disease. II. Endoscopic findings and cultivation of C. pylori.

Specimens from 153 consecutive patients were cultivated for C. pylori, and findings were correlated to the endoscopic findings. C. pylori was cultivated more frequently from males than from females. Culture-positive males had a high frequency of prepyloric abnormalities. No correlation between age or pH in gastric juice and cultivation of C. pylori was found. C. pylori was found significantly more often in patients with peptic ulcer and/or duodenitis than in patients with normal endoscopic findings. No differences could be detected between patients with gastritis or esophagitis and patients with normal endoscopic findings. C. pylori was found most frequently in the antral part of the stomach. It was cultivated significantly more often from patients with duodenal abnormalities than from patients with normal endoscopic findings. In less than half of the culture-positive patients with duodenal abnormalities we cultivated C. pylori from duodenal specimens. This study also showed C. pylori in esophageal specimens, which has not been previously described. Our results suggest that cultivation of C. pylori from duodenal specimens or gastric fluid samples gives no additional information beyond that obtained from the cultivation of antral biopsy specimens. It is our opinion that C. pylori, at least in some cases, may be a secondary infection.