Seroprevalence of Helicobacter Pylori infection among dyspeptic patients of Swat, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan

Abstract

The Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection is ubiquitous and infects almost more than half of population of the world that may lead to gastritis, gastric and duodenal ulcer and gastric cancer. Concerning 10% of all infected people develop stomach ulcer, 2-3% develop stomach cancer and less than 0.1% develop another type of gastric tumor called mucosa associated lymphoid tissue (MALT). The present study is about to find the seroprevalance of H. pylori among dyspeptic patients and correlation of H. pylori positive subjects with their clinical data, signs and symptoms. The study was conducted at Saidu Teaching Hospital Swat, Khyber Pukhtunkhwa, Pakistan and a prospective clinical data interpretation was based on the diagnostic seropositivity tests for H. pylori. The inclusion criterion was dyspepsia, based on symptoms and while excluding the dyspeptic patients with antibiotics treatment. A total of 117 subjects were evaluated on a rapid immune chromatography test using Acon test device (Acon labarotories, USA). In the screening study 40 patients were positive for H. pylori with prevalence of 34.18%. The predominant signs and symptoms found among positive subjects were abdominal pain, heart burn and vomiting. The prevalence of H. Pylori among dyspeptic patients of Swat is low as compared to other parts of Pakistan.