Background: Chronic infection with Helicobacter pylori is associated with protean manifestations, which vary from no symptoms to multiple gastric diseases. Other H. pylori infections could provide protection against reflux esophagitis, and lower esophageal cancer. The current study aims to scan H. pylori strains that colonize the stomach of Egyptian patients with upper gastrointestinal disorders and its association with the endoscopic outcomes. Identification of H. pylori strains was done by PCR amplification of the 16s rRNA gene from gastric biopsies, proved to be positive for H. pylori by both Giemsa stain and histopathology. PCR products were purified, sequenced, and aligned to GenBank. Results: BLAST results of H. pylori 16s rRNA gene sequences showed identity between Egyptian H. pylori isolates and four H. pylori strain subpopulations: hspSAfrica, hspEAsia, hpEurope, hspWAfrica. The frequency of H. pylori isolates that showed identity to hspEAsia subpopulation was significantly higher in Ulcerative lesions. H. pylori isolates from ulcerative and neoplasm specimens illustrate base substitutions in 16s rRNA gene variable 9 region compared to the consensus sequence of H. pylori 43504 16s rRNA. Conclusion: Different H. pylori strains may be associated with differences in the clinical manifestations and could be used as a prognostic marker to predict the outcome of the H. pylori-associated diseases.

Background and aim of the work Hepatocellular cancer (HCC) is one of the common liver cancers and considered to be the sixth most commonly occurring cancer in the world and the second leading cause of death among cancer patients. More recent studies on HCC showed that the elevated serum endocan level was a predictive factor of recurrence after radiofrequency ablation. The aim of this study is to evaluate the serum endocan level as a prognostic biomarker for recurrence of HCC after percutaneous radiofrequency ablation. Patients and methods Analytic-prospective study was carried out in Suez Canal University Hospitals. The study was carried out on 80 patients classified into three groups: group 1 (control group) consisted of 20 apparently healthy persons; group 2 consisted of 20 patients with liver cirrhosis; and group 3 consisted of 40 treatment-naive HCC patients who were prepared for radiofrequency ablation. All HCC patients (who were confirmed to have complete ablation after RF) were followed up by using triphasic abdominal CT, serum AFP and serum endocan assessment at 3 and 6 months after radiofrequency ablation. Results Our study revealed a high level of serum endocan in the HCC group with a statistically significant difference (<0.001) between the three groups. HCC patients had a higher level of serum endocan (6.2 ± 2.25) followed by an liver cirrhosis group (2.0 ± 1.29) and then the control group (1.0 ± 0.3). The serum endocan level had a positive correlation with recurrence of HCC (P < 0.0001). There was a positive correlation between serum endocan and serum alanine transferase (P = 0.02), and a positive correlation between serum endocan and the number of tumors (P = 0.01). Conclusion Serum endocan is considered as a prognostic biomarker for tumor recurrence in HCC patients after radiofrequency ablation.