Study on relationship between acute gastrointestinal disease and Helicobacter pylori infections

Objective: To assess the relation between acute gastrointestinal disease and Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infections. Methods: Over the 18-month period, a total of 323 patients referred to three hospitals in Babol (north of Iran) were enrolled in this cross-sectional study. H. pylori status (rapid urease test), endoscopic findings in the patients, personal habits (smoking or alcohol intake) and administration of drugs, such as non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) were analyzed using standard Chi-square test and multinomial logistic regression analysis. Results: Results showed that acute gastric ulcer patients had a significant association with alcohol (P=0.001, OR=6.183), opium (P=0.022, OR=2.823), smoking (P=0.016, OR=2.579) and NSAIDs (P=0.046, OR=2.071). However, patients with in acute duodenal ulcer have a significant association with opium (P=0.023, OR=2.326) and alcohol (P=0.003, OR=3.888). As well as, gastric cancer had significant association with alcohol (P<0.05, OR=6.937), smoking (P=0.012, OR=2.738), family history (P=0.005, OR=4.380) and gender (P≤0.05, OR=5.103). Conclusions: Current investigation shows that H. pylori infection, alcoholism, male gender, age and family history have an additive impact on the incidence of gastric cancer. In addition, alcoholism, opium usage, NSAIDs and family history have more impact on the incidence of acute gastric ulcer and acute duodenal ulcer in patients