Helicobacter pylori Positivity and Risk Analysis in Patients with Abdominal Pain Complaints

: Helicobacters have wide host diversity due to the their particular virulence and environmental factors and may cause infections in humans. As they live in and around the stomach the group is called as gastric helicobacters which particularly consists of Helicobacter pylori and Helicobacter heilmanni, Helicobacter felis, Helicobacter salomonis and many other species, as well. In this study, it was aimed to evaluate 195 patients (119 urban and 76 rural residents, 121 female and 74 male individuals between 18 and 93 years of age) in terms of gastric Helicobacter (H.pylori, H.felis and H.heilmanii) who have admitted to the Health Research and Application Center of Kafkas University Endoscopy Unit of the General Surgery Department with the complaints of abdominal pain. For this purpose, biopsy specimens obtained from various parts of the stomach (corpus and antrum) by endoscopy were analyzed with histopathological examination and PCR. Histopathological analysis sections were stained with May-Grunwald-Giemsa and spiral-shaped helicobacters attached to the surface of the epithelium were investigated. For the direct analysis of Helicobacter in biopsy samples, 16S rRNA gene based genus-specific and urease B gene based species-specific PCR methods were used. Out of the 195 cases that were histopathologically evaluated 163 (83.58%) were found to be positive for gastric Helicobacter, while five were suspected and 27 were negative. Helicobacter spp. DNA were detected in 107 (54.87%) samples, of these samples 91 were histopathologically positive, 13 were negative and three were suspicious samples. Eighty seven (44.61%) of the samples were identified as H.pylori by species-specific PCR. H.felis and H.heilmannii could not be detected in any of the samples; meanwhile genus-specific PCR positive 20 samples were not identified. In this study, 42.85% of the individuals living in urban area and 47.36% of those living in rural area were identified as H.pylori positive. 46.28% of women and 41.89% of men were positive for H.pylori. The age range of H.pylori positive individuals were as follows: 60% of the individuals were between 15-24 years, 60.27% of the individuals were between 25-44 years, 34.66% of the individuals were between 45-64 years and 29.72% of the individuals were 65 and over. 42.64% of the cat or dog owners were found as H.pylori positive whereas H.pylori was positive in 45.66% of the individuals who do not own animals. No significant relationship was found between these determinants and the prevalence of the disease (p> 0.05). However, the positivity of H.pylori was higher in the 25-44 active working age group due to the increased agent exposure (p<0.05). This study is the first study on the prevalence of H.pylori in humans and analysis of possible risk factors in the region and hoped to provide useful information for the researchers working in this field.