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The present study is done to study different aspects of Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) such as its prevalence, association with upper gastrointestinal pathology, diagnosis and treatment outcome. Gastric antral biopsy and serology for H. pylori was done for all dyspeptic patients. Histopathology, gram stain and biopsy urease test was done from the gastric biopsy specimen. The prevalence of H. pylori infection was 58.8%. The sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive value for histopathology was 96.9%, 100%, 100% and 95.8%, respectively; for biopsy urease test 80.4%, 100%, 100% and 78.2%, respectively; for gram stain 85.6%, 97.1%, 97.6% and 82.5%, respectively, and for serology 94.8%, 77.9%, 86% and 91.4%, respectively. Mostly peptic ulcer and duodenitis cases followed by chronic active gastritis were associated with H. pylori infection. Repeat biopsy revealed eradication of H. pylori in 90.7% cases. In dyspeptic patients, endoscopic biopsy not only detects H. pylori infection, but also reveals different gastric pathologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the present study was to investigate the prevalence of Helicobacter pylori infection and the correlation between cagA and vacA (mid-region) genotypes with different clinical outcomes from Chennai, India, patients. Biopsies from the antrum were taken to assess the current H. pylori status by histology, rapid urease test (RUT), and PCR. The RUT and PCR analyses were carried out on a single biopsy specimen. Fasting sera were obtained from all patients and H. pylori status was determined by using ELISA. In addition, the correlations between cagA and vacA genotypes and the consequence of H. pylori infection were statistically examined. Prevalence of the cagA gene was found in 96% (90/94) of patients, and the vacA m2 subtype occurred in 60% (56/94), whereas 32% (30/94) showed the vacA m1 subtype. A significant association between the cagA and vacA m2 region (χ2 = 5.556; p < 0.01) was found in ulcer patients. The vacA m2 genotype showed a near-significant value (χ2 = 3.943; p < 0.047) in ulcer patients when compared with vacA m1. These findings suggest that H. pylori strains with the vacA m2 region were predominant in South India, especially in and around Chennai. This study also showed that PCR has a potential value for studying the cagA gene directly from biopsy specimens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on the need for subspecialty training for an internal audit of gastric biopsy in India. In a first phase, 228 consecutive gastric biopsies were evaluated by histopathologists. In a second phase, actual biopsy reports on the gastric biopsies were retrieved from the records and compared. In the final phase, clinical impact of the audit was analyzed.