ObjectiveThe best approach for Helicobacter pylori management remains unclear. An audit process is essential to ensure clinical practice is aligned with best standards of care.DesignInternational multicentre prospective non-interventional registry starting in 2013 aimed to evaluate the decisions and outcomes in H. pylori management by European gastroenterologists. Patients were registered in an e-CRF by AEG-REDCap. Variables included demographics, previous eradication attempts, prescribed treatment, adverse events and outcomes. Data monitoring was performed to ensure data quality. Time-trend and geographical analyses were performed.Results30 394 patients from 27 European countries were evaluated and 21 533 (78%) first-line empirical H. pylori treatments were included for analysis. Pretreatment resistance rates were 23% to clarithromycin, 32% to metronidazole and 13% to both. Triple therapy with amoxicillin and clarithromycin was most commonly prescribed (39%), achieving 81.5% modified intention-to-treat eradication rate. Over 90% eradication was obtained only with 10-day bismuth quadruple or 14-day concomitant treatments. Longer treatment duration, higher acid inhibition and compliance were associated with higher eradication rates. Time-trend analysis showed a region-dependent shift in prescriptions including abandoning triple therapies, using higher acid-inhibition and longer treatments, which was associated with an overall effectiveness increase (84%–90%).ConclusionManagement of H. pylori infection by European gastroenterologists is heterogeneous, suboptimal and discrepant with current recommendations. Only quadruple therapies lasting at least 10 days are able to achieve over 90% eradication rates. European recommendations are being slowly and heterogeneously incorporated into routine clinical practice, which was associated with a corresponding increase in effectiveness.

Background: Bacterial antibiotic resistance changes over time depending on multiple factors; therefore, it is essential to monitor the susceptibility trends to reduce the resistance impact on the effectiveness of various treatments. Objective: To conduct a time-trend analysis of Helicobacter pylori resistance to antibiotics in Europe. Methods: The international prospective European Registry on Helicobacter pylori Management (Hp-EuReg) collected data on all infected adult patients diagnosed with culture and antimicrobial susceptibility testing positive results that were registered at AEG-REDCap e-CRF until December 2020. Results: Overall, 41,562 patients were included in the Hp-EuReg. Culture and antimicrobial susceptibility testing were performed on gastric biopsies of 3974 (9.5%) patients, of whom 2852 (7%) were naive cases included for analysis. The number of positive cultures decreased by 35% from the period 2013–2016 to 2017–2020. Concerning naïve patients, no antibiotic resistance was found in 48% of the cases. The most frequent resistances were reported against metronidazole (30%), clarithromycin (25%), and levofloxacin (20%), whereas resistances to tetracycline and amoxicillin were below 1%. Dual and triple resistances were found in 13% and 6% of the cases, respectively. A decrease (p < 0.001) in the metronidazole resistance rate was observed between the 2013–2016 (33%) and 2017–2020 (24%) periods. Conclusion: Culture and antimicrobial susceptibility testing for Helicobacter pylori are scarcely performed (<10%) in Europe. In naïve patients, Helicobacter pylori resistance to clarithromycin remained above 15% throughout the period 2013–2020 and resistance to levofloxacin, as well as dual or triple resistances, were high. A progressive decrease in metronidazole resistance was observed.

No abstract

Background and aims: the increasing prevalence of strains resistant to antimicrobial agents is a critical issue for the management of Helicobacter pylori infection. This study aimed to evaluate, in Italian naïve patients, H. pylori antibiotic resistance trends and their potential predictive factors during the last decade. Methods: consecutive Italian naïve H. pylori positive patients, referred from General Practitioners to our Unit from January 2009 to January 2019 to perform an upper gastrointestinal endoscopy (UGIE), were considered. Each patient underwent 13C-urea breath test (13C-UBT) and UGIE with multiple biopsies to perform rapid urease test (RUT), culture/susceptibility test (vs. clarithromycin, metronidazole, levofloxacin), and histopathological examination. H. pylori status was assessed through CRM (composite reference method: at least two tests positive or only culture positive). Results: between 2009 and 2014, 1763 patients were diagnosed as H. pylori positive, 907 were naïve with antibiogram available. Between 2015 and 2019, 1415 patients were diagnosed as H. pylori positive, antibiotic susceptibility test was available in 739 naïve patients. H. pylori primary antibiotic resistance rates in the first and second five-year period were, respectively, clarithromycin 30.2% (95% CI 27.2–33.3), 37.8% (95% CI 34.2–41.4); metronidazole 33.3% (95% CI 30.2–36.5), 33.6% (95% CI 30.2–37.1); levofloxacin 25.6% (95% CI 22.8–28.5), 33.8% (95% CI 37.4–47.4), double resistance clarithromycin-metronidazole 18.9% (95% CI 16.4–21.6), 20.7% (95% CI 17.8–23.8). The increase of the resistance rates to clarithromycin and levofloxacin in naïve patients was statistically significant (p < 0.05). Although eradication rates for sequential therapy in the 10 years considered were 93.4% (95% CI 92–94.6) and 87.5% (95% CI 85.7–89) at per-protocol (PP) and intention-to-treat (ITT) analysis, respectively, they showed a significant decrease in the second five-year period. Conclusions: this data highlights an increase in primary H. pylori antibiotic resistance and strongly suggests the importance of drug susceptibility testing also in naïve patients.

Background and aims: Only a few antimicrobials are effective against H. pylori, and antibiotic resistance is an increasing problem for eradication therapies. In 2017, the World Health Organization categorized clarithromycin resistant H. pylori as a “high-priority” bacterium. Standard antimicrobial susceptibility testing can be used to prescribe appropriate therapies but is currently recommended only after the second therapeutic failure. H. pylori is, in fact, a “fastidious” microorganism; culture methods are time-consuming and technically challenging. The advent of molecular biology techniques has enabled the identification of molecular mechanisms underlying the observed phenotypic resistance to antibiotics in H. pylori. The aim of this literature review is to summarize the results of original articles published in the last ten years, regarding the use of Next Generation Sequencing, in particular of the whole genome, to predict the antibiotic resistance in H. pylori.Methods: a literature research was made on PubMed. The research was focused on II and III generation sequencing of the whole H. pylori genome. Results: Next Generation Sequencing enabled the detection of novel, rare and complex resistance mechanisms. The prediction of resistance to clarithromycin, levofloxacin and amoxicillin is accurate; for other antimicrobials, such as metronidazole, rifabutin and tetracycline, potential genetic determinants of the resistant status need further investigation.