Role of Helicobacter pylori gastritis in gastric atrophy, intestinal metaplasia, and gastric neoplasia

Helicobacter pylori is the major cause of chronic gastritis worldwide. With an estimated rate of infection of over one half of the world's population, it is responsible for extensive morbidity and mortality. Infection with th is organism does not appear to spontaneously resolve. Instead it reaches a chronic stage from which a number of outcomes are possible. This article re views those outcomes that have been linked to H. pylori and explores the pa thogenesis while attempting to resolve the discrepant paths infection can t ake. The associations include duodenal and gastric ulcers and the majority of gastric lymphomas of B-cell type derived from the mucosa-associated lymp hoid tissue (MALT). Chronic gastritis has also been shown to evolve into at rophy with intestinal metaplasia in certain populations. This change in the gastric epithelium has been Linked with an increased risk of gastric adeno carcinoma. Published 2000 Wiley-Liss. Inc.(dagger).