Different interdigestive antroduodenal motility patterns in chronic antral gastritis with and without Helicobacter pylori infection.

Fasting antroduodenal motor activity was studied in 15 dyspeptic patients with chronic superficial antral gastritis and Helicobacter pylori infection (group A), 10 dyspeptic patients with chronic superficial antral gastritis without Helicobacter pylori infection (group B), and eight healthy control subjects (group C) by manometric recording of phases of the interdigestive migrating motor complex (MMC) prolonged over 240 min. A significantly lower incidence of activity fronts (phase III of MMC) starting from the antrum was observed in patients with gastritis and Helicobacter pylori infection vs patients without bacterial colonization (P = 0.013) and in these latter vs control subjects (P = 0.013). Likewise, the overall number of activity fronts was smaller in patients with gastritis than in healthy subjects (P = 0.034). Symptomatic evaluation was performed in the two groups of dyspeptic patients, without detecting any differences in frequency and severity of complaints. Our results show a significant reduction in the occurrence of interdigestive antral phase III of MMC in chronic gastritis associated with Helicobacter pylori infection, suggesting a possible relationship between fasting motility and bacterial colonization.