Does Helicobacter pylori have a pathogenic role in bronchiectasis

Summary Aim To investigate the presence of Helicobacter pylori ( H. pylori ) in bronchial biopsies of patients with bronchiectasis, by histochemical and immunochemical staining. Setting 800-bed tertiary university hospital. Methods Observational study. Patients: forty-six patients with bronchiectasis in a stable clinical condition and 8 control patients. Interventions: Serum samples determination of IgG levels for H. pylori by ELISA. Inmunostaining with an anti- H. pylori antibody (NCL-HPp, Novocastra) of bronchial mucosa obtained by fiberoptic bronchoscopy from both patients with bronchiectasis and controls. Results Twenty-one out of 46 patients with bronchiectasis (46%) had positive serologies for H. pylori. We obtained 40 bronchial biopsies in patients with bronchiectasis and 8 bronchial biopsies in control patients. No evidence of H. pylori was obtained in the bronchial samples of both patients and controls. Conclusions The results of our study could not demonstrate the presence of H. pylori in bronchial specimens from patients with bronchiectasis.