Helicobacter pylori type I strains among Austrian and Portuguese patients with gastritis, peptic ulcer or gastric cancer

The frequency of occurrence of Helicobacter pylori type I strains in isolat es from Austria and Portugal and different polymerase chain reaction-based approaches to detect the cag pathogenicity island were assessed. Of the 41 Austrian strains, eight of 14 (57.2%) isolated from patients with gastritis , 14 of 19 (73.7%) from patients with peptic ulcer and eight of eight (100% ) from patients with gastric cancer were type I strains. Among the Portugue se strains, eight of 14 (57.2%) isolated from patients with gastritis, ten of 12 (83.3%) from patients with peptic ulcer and five of 13 (38.5%) from p atients with gastric cancer were classified as type I. Thus, Helicobacter p ylori type I strains occur frequently in both populations but show no signi ficant correlation with peptic ulcer disease. The prevalence of the type I genotype in Austrian cancer patients, however, was significantly higher (P = 0.007). The cagE-specific polymerase chain reaction was found to be a rel iable and efficient method for detection of the cag pathogenicity island.