Helicobacter pylori genotypes among patients in a university hospital in Egypt: identifying the determinants of disease severity

Objective: To detect the various of H. pylori genotypes, determine the most prevalent one, and to identify the determinants of disease severity. Methods: Biopsies from 90 patients were collected, however 69 were exclusively analyzed. Recognition of H. pylori was made by rapid urease test, histopathology and polymerase chain reaction. The latter was used to amplify genes encoding for virulence markers such as CagA, vacAs1 and vacAs2. Results: cagA was identified in 45 isolates (65.2%), vacAs1 in 54 (78.3%, predominantly vacAs1a), vacAs2 in 15 (21.7%), vacAm1 in 37 (53.6%), vacAm2 in 32 (46.4%), vacAi1 in 36 (52.2%), and vacAi2 in 32 (46.4%) of strains. vacAi1 gene was the only independent marker of pathogenicity. cagA/vacAs1(a)i1m1 was the most prevalent genotype. Conclusion: isolates possess vacAs1(a) as the predominant allelic variant of vacAs types, with a closely equal distributions of m1 and m2 alleles and of i1 and i2 alleles. The majority of the strains from the population studied are of the cagA/vacAs1(a)i1m1 genotype. vacAi1 is the only determinant of disease severity. J Microbiol Infect Dis 2013; 3(3): 109115