DIFFERENT INTERDIGESTIVE ANTRODUODENAL MOTILITY PATTERNS IN CHRONIC ANTRAL GASTRITIS WITH AND WITHOUT HELICOBACTER-PYLORI INFECTION

Fasting antroduodenal motor activity was studied in 15 dyspeptic patie nts with chronic superficial antral gastritis and Helicobacter pylori infection (group A), 10 dyspeptic patients with chronic superficial an tral gastritis without Helicobacter pylori infection (group p), and ei ght healthy control subjects (group C) by manometric recording of phas es of the interdigestive migrating motor complex (MMC) prolonged over 240 min. A significantly lower incidence of activity fronts (phase III of MMC) starting from the antrum was observed in patients with gastri tis and Helicobacter pylori infection vs patients without bacterial co lonization (P = 0.013) and in these latter vs control subjects (P = 0. 013). Likewise, the overall number of activity fronts was smaller in p atients with gastritis than in healthy subjects (P = 0.034). Symptomat ic evaluation was performed in the two groups of dyspeptic patients, w ithout detecting any differences in frequency and severity of complain ts. Our results show a significant reduction in the occurrence of inte rdigestive antral phase III of MMC in chronic gastritis associated wit h Helicobacter pylori infection, suggesting a possible relationship be tween fasting motility and bacterial colonization.