Helicobacter pylori and mucosal atrophy in patients with gastric cancer - A special study regarding the methods for detecting Helicobacter pylori

We assessed the sensitivities of several methods for detecting Helicobacter pylori (culture, histology, rapid urease test, and serology), and evaluate d the H. pylori positivity considering the degree of atrophy in the backgro und mucosa in 202 gastric cancer patients and 101 controls. The positivity of H, pylori determined by culture (81%) was significantly higher than that determined by serology (62%) in gastric cancer patients (P < 0.001), The p ositivities of H, pylori determined by biopsy and/or serology in intestinal (84%) and diffuse (95%) types of gastric cancer were higher than that obse rved in controls (54%) (P < 0.001). Intestinal-type gastric cancer tended t o occur in the atrophic mucosa, in which H. pylori positivity was not diffe rent from that in controls after adjusting for the degree of atrophy, where as diffuse-type gastric cancer was observed more often in the nonatrophic m ucosa, in which H. pylori positivity was higher than that in controls even after adjusting for the degree of atrophy.