HELICOBACTER-PYLORI INFECTION AND GASTRIC METAPLASIA IN THE DUODENUM IN CHINA

Biopsy specimens from antral and duodenal mucosa were obtained from 64 patients with active duodenal ulcer and from 78 with nonulcer dyspeps ia. Gastric metaplasia in the duodenal bulb was more frequent in patie nts with duodenal ulcer (82.5%) than in patients with dyspepsia and du odenitis (53.1%) or in patients with dyspepsia without duodenitis (34. 5%). Helicobacter pylori infection in the duodenal bulb was found more often in patients with moderate to severe gastric metaplasia (62.3%) than in patients with mild gastric metaplasia (20%). Therefore, patien ts from a developing country, China, showed the same relationship betw een duodenitis, gastric metaplasia, duodenal colonization with H. pylo ri, and duodenal ulcer previously demonstrated in developed countries.