Severe gastritis decreases success rate of Helicobacter pylori eradication

In several studies, different risk factors other than antibiotic resistance have been documented with Helicobacter pylori eradication failure. We aimed in this study to investigate the relationship of gastric density of H. pylori, the occurrence/degree of gastric atrophy, and intestinal metaplasia (IM) with success rate of H. pylori eradication. Two hundred consecutive treatment naive patients who received bismuth containing standart quadruple treatment due to H. pylori infection documented by histopathological examination of two antral or two corpal biopsies entered this retrospective study. The updated Sydney system was used to grade the activity of gastritis, density of H. pylori colonization, atrophy, and IM. Stages III and IV of operative link for gastritis assessment (OLGA) or the operative link on gastric intestinal metaplasia assessment (OLGIM) stages was considered as severe gastritis. H. pylori eradication was determined via stool H. pylori antigen test performed 4 weeks after the end of therapy. The presence of gastric atrophy and IM was significantly higher in patients with eradication failure (p = 0.001 and 0.01, respectively). Severe gastritis (OLGA III-IV and OLGIM III-IV) rates were higher in eradication failure group. A multiple linear regression analysis showed that OLGA and OLGIM stages were to be independent risk factors for eradication failure (p = 0.03 and 0.01, respectively). Our results suggested that histopathologically severe gastritis may cause H. pylori eradication failure. In addition, we found that H. pylori density was not a risk factor for treatment failure in patients who receive quadruple treatment.