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INTRODUCTION: Recurrence is an important problem after Helicobacter pylori infection, and intrafamilial transmission has an important role in recurrence. In this study, we aimed to investigate the significance of intrafamilial transmission for recurrence development after treatment as well as its usefulness in prevention. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Of the 109 patients who had dyspepsia and underwent endoscopy, 74 patients had H. pylori infection and were enrolled in this study. Infected family members were also detected. Patients were randomly divided into groups I and II, with each group containing 37 individuals. In group I, patients and their infected family members were treated together at the same time. In group II, only the patients were treated. Treatment success was evaluated at the 1st month and evaluation for recurrence was carried out at the 6th month. RESULTS: Helicobacter pylori infection was detected in 67.8% of the patients with dyspepsia. Two patients in each group did not show up at the 1st month control. Eradication was achieved in 63 of the 70 patients (90.0%) who completed their treatment. After 6 months, patients with successful treatment had no recurrence in any of the 32 patients in group I. There were recurrence in 3 of the 31 patients (9.7%) in group II; however, there was no statistically significant difference between the groups (p = 0.113). CONCLUSION: Our study showed that eradication treatment in patients and family members with H. pylori infection resulted in a decrease in the number of recurrences even though it was not statistically significant. HOW TO CITE THIS ARTICLE: Yalçin M, Yalçin A, Bengi G, Nak SG. Helicobacter pylori Infection among Patients with Dyspepsia and Intrafamilial Transmission. Euroasian J Hepato-Gastroenterol 2016;6(2):93-96.
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BACKGROUND AND AIM: Noninvasive tests are primarily used for staging hepatic fibrosis in patients with chronic liver disease. In clinical practice, serum aminotransferase levels, coagulation parameters, and platelet count have been used to predict whether or not a patient has cirrhosis. In addition, several studies have evaluated the accuracy of combinations (or ratios) of these measures. The present study aimed to investigate the relationship between five noninvasive models [AST/ALT ratio (AAR), aspartate aminotransferase to platelet ratio index (APRI), Bonacini cirrhosis discriminant score (CDS), age-platelet index (APind), and King's score] and the degree of hepatic fibrosis as determined by biopsy in patients with chronic hepatitis B and C. PATIENTS AND METHODS: A total of 380 patients with viral hepatitis (237 with chronic hepatitis B and 143 with chronic hepatitis C) who were seen at our clinic between January 2005 and January 2011 were retrospectively analyzed. The degree of fibrosis was determined using the Ishak score. Patients with a fibrosis score of 0-2 were considered to have low fibrosis and those with a score between 3 and 6 were considered to have high fibrosis. Five noninvasive models were compared between the groups with low and high fibrosis. RESULTS: There were statistically significant differences between the hepatitis B and C patients with high and low fibrosis with respect to APind (4.49±2.35 vs. 2.41±1.84; P<0.001 in hepatitis B and 4.83±2.25 vs. 2.92±1.88; P<0.001 in hepatitis C), APRI (1.00±1.17 vs. 0.47±0.39; P<0.001 in hepatitis B and 1.01±1.01 vs. 0.41±0.29; P<0.001 in hepatitis C), CDS (4.53±1.90 vs. 3.58±1.30; P<0.001 in hepatitis B and 4.71±2.03 vs. 3.42±1.49; P<0.05 in hepatitis C), and King's score (24.31±3.14 vs. 7.65±6.70; P<0.001 in hepatitis B and 24.82±2.55 vs. 8.33±7.29; P<0.001 in hepatitis C). There were no significant differences in the AAR between the hepatitis B and C patients with high and low fibrosis (0.78±0.31 vs. 0.74±0.34; P=0.082 in hepatitis B and 0.91±0.40 vs. 0.85±0.27; P=0.25 in hepatitis C). The area under the receiver-operating characteristic curve of the APind, APRI, CDS, and King's score in the hepatitis B group were 0.767, 0.710, 0.646, and 0.770, respectively; these values were 0.732, 0.763, 0.677, and 0.783, respectively, in the hepatitis C group. CONCLUSION: In conclusion, our data suggest that four of the five noninvasive methods evaluated in this study can be used to predict advanced fibrosis in patients with hepatitis B and C. However, there was no significant relationship between the degree of hepatic fibrosis and the AAR score, indicating that AAR is not useful in estimating the fibrosis stage in hepatitis B and C patients.