Chronic gastritis and Helicobacter pylori in digestive form of Chagas' disease

Abstract

Patients with the digestive form of Chagas' disease frequently present chronic gastritis. As the microorganism Helicobacter pylori is now accepted as the most common cause of human chronic gastritis, the present work was undertaken to verify a possible relationship between the presence of this bacterium and inflammatory changes of antral mucosa in chagasic patients. Seventeen chagasics, with megaesophagus and or megacolon were studied. Fragments from two different regions of antral mucosa were obtained by endoscopy, fixed in 4% neutral formaldehyde and embedded in paraffin. The sections were stained by haematoxylin and eosin for histology analysis, and by carbolfuchsin for H. pylori identification. H. pylori was found in 16 (94.1%) chagasic patients, all of them presenting chronic gastritis. Superficial gastritis was seen in 9 (52.9%) while atrophic gastritis was present in 8 (47.1%) patients. H. pylori was present on gastric mucosa of 8 (100%) patients with atrophic gastritis and of 8 (88.8%) patients with superficial gastritis. We concluded that the microorganism H. pylori should be considered a possible factor connected with the etiopathogenesis of chronic superficial and atrophic gastritis frequently observed in patients with the digestive form of Chagas' disease.

Histological and endoscopic features of the stomachs of patients with Chagas disease in the era of Helicobacter pylori

“…We found a high prevalence of gastritis and H. pylori infection in both groups of chagasic and non-chagasic patients in the present study. Although two previous studies have reported similar fi ndings for a small group of chagasic patients 13,14 , this is the fi rst controlled study to demonstrate that H. pylori is the major cause of gastritis in patients with Chagas disease.…”

“…A fi rst basal breath sample was collected, and then, an oral dose of 75mg of 13 C-urea dissolved in 200mL of orange juice was administered. An additional breath sample was collected after 30min.…”

“…After the discovery of H. pylori, two uncontrolled studies that evaluated a small group of patients with the digestive 13 and indeterminate 14 forms of Chagas disease reported a high prevalence rate of both gastritis and H. pylori infection (~95%) in these patients using histological diagnosis. Later, Pinazo et al 15 detected a high prevalence of H. pylori infection, which was diagnosed using the urea breath test, among Latin American immigrants living in Barcelona that had the digestive form of Chagas disease.…”

Seroprevalence of Helicobacter pylori infection in chagasic and nonchagasic patients from the same geographical region of Brazil

“…After the discovery of H. pylori in 1982, Barbosa et al 13 were the first to investigate the presence of bacteria in the gastric mucosa of patients with Chagas disease, followed by Oliveira et al, who evaluated patients with the digestive and indeterminate clinical forms of the disease, respectively. In those studies, the prevalence of H. pylori infection was very high (~95%).…”

“…Later, some studies demonstrated a high prevalence of H. pylori infection in patients with Chagas disease [13][14][15][16] . As this small number of studies on T. cruzi and H. pylori co-infection had no control groups and/or included a low number of patients, we evaluated the prevalence of H. pylori infection among chagasic and non-chagasic subjects living in a region previously considered endemic for Chagas disease.…”