Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Histological Gastric Biopsy Aspects According to the Updated Sydney System in Children.

OBJECTIVES: A descriptive and comparative study of gastric histological aspects according to the updated Sydney classification (USC), obtained from Helicobacter pylori-positive versus H pylori-negative children referred for upper gastrointestinal endoscopy. METHODS: The Prisma method was used to perform a systematic review and meta-analysis. Selection criteria were based on following key words USC, H pylori, children, endoscopy, or biopsy. Publication biases were assessed according to the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale, and a meta-regression analysis was done. The study was registered on the PROSPERO platform. RESULTS: Between 1994 and 2017, 1238 references were found; 97 studies were retained for the systematic review with a total number of 25,867 children; 75 studies were selected for the meta-analysis concerning 5990 H pylori-infected and 17,782 uninfected children.H pylori-positive versus H pylori-negative children, according to the USC, showed significantly higher relative risk for gastric antral and corpus chronic inflammation, presence of neutrophils, and of lymphoid follicles, and gastric mucosa atrophy, whereas, intestinal metaplasia showed a significantly higher RR only in antral biopsies. The meta-regression analysis showed that H pylori-positive versus H pylori-negative children had significantly higher risk only for corpus activity according to age, recurrent abdominal pain, and geographical area of low H pylori prevalence. CONCLUSIONS: H pylori infection in children was associated with higher relative risk for gastric antral and corpus chronic inflammation, presence of neutrophils, lymphoid follicles, and rare gastric mucosa atrophy, whereas, rare intestinal metaplasia was only significantly higher in the antral area.

Familial Mediterranean Fever Mutation Analysis in Pediatric Patients With Inflammatory Bowel Disease: A Multicenter Study.

BACKGROUND: The aim of the study was to evaluate familial Mediterranean fever (FMF) mutation analysis in pediatric patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). The relation between MEFV mutations and chronic inflammatory diseases has been reported previously. METHODS: Children with IBD (334 ulcerative colitis (UC), 224 Crohn's disease (CD), 39 indeterminate colitis (IC)) were tested for FMF mutations in this multicenter study. The distribution of mutations according to disease type, histopathological findings, and disease activity indexes was determined. RESULTS: A total of 597 children (mean age: 10.8 ± 4.6 years, M/F: 1.05) with IBD were included in the study. In this study, 41.9% of the patients had FMF mutations. E148Q was the most common mutation in UC and CD, and M694V in IC (30.5%, 34.5%, 47.1%, respectively). There was a significant difference in terms of endoscopic and histopathological findings according to mutation types (homozygous/ heterozygous) in patients with UC (P < .05). There was a statistically significant difference between colonoscopy findings in patients with or without mutations (P = .031, P = .045, respectively). The patients with UC who had mutations had lower Pediatric Ulcerative Colitis Activity Index (PUCAI) scores than the patients without mutations (P = .007). CONCLUSION: Although FMF mutations are unrelated to CD patients, but observed in UC patients with low PUCAI scores, it was established that mutations do not have a high impact on inflammatory response and clinical outcome of the disease.

Can the Reflux Finding Score and Reflux Symptom Index Be Used to Evaluate the Severity of Esophagitis in Children?

OBJECTIVES: Laryngopharyngeal reflux (LPR), a growing issue in ear, nose, and throat (ENT) and pediatric medicine, is the backflow of stomach contents into the laryngopharynx. Patients present with frequent upper and/or lower respiratory tract infections and coughs, associated with acid- and pepsin-mediated injury to the mucosae of the larynx and pharynx. LPR is associated with rhinosinusitis, laryngitis, pneumonia, and asthma. Children with LPR often fail to exhibit classic gastroesophageal reflux disease symptoms, or such symptoms may be intermittent. Only a few studies have sought correlations among symptoms, endoscopic findings, and the results of frequently used diagnostic tests. THE AIM OF OUR STUDY: We sought associations among the Reflux Finding Score (RFS), Reflux Symptom Index (RSI), and the pathological extent of esophagitis. METHODS: We reviewed data on children who underwent upper gastrointestinal tract endoscopy and showed LPR symptoms, as reported by the ENT department. The RSI was scored by pediatric gastroenterologists and the RFS by ENT doctors, via laryngoscopic examination. The pathological esophageal data were evaluated retrospectively. RESULTS: We treated 52 patients (29 boys) with a mean age of 11.4 ± 4.5 years. On pathological evaluation, one patient exhibited normal esophageal findings, while 28 showed mild esophagitis, 16 esophagitis, and 8 severe esophagitis. Thirteen patients showed esophageal pseudopolypoid lesions secondary to gastroesophageal reflux disease on endoscopic examination, but were human papilloma virus-negative. There was no correlation among the RFS, RSI score, and age, but there was a significant correlation between the pathological data and the RFS (P = 0.010; r = 0.461). CONCLUSIONS: The incidence of LPR/esophagitis in children may differ from that in adults. Therefore, ENT specialists should determine esophagitis status in children and, if necessary, consult pediatric gastroenterologists.

Is there any difference between the symptomatology and clinical findings of viral agents causing dehydration?

BACKGROUND: Acute gastroenteritis is responsible for dehydration in many children. The viruses like rotavirus, norovirus, and adenovirus are considered the main causative agents of gastroenteritis. The goal of this study is the evaluation of the symptoms, clinical findings and hospitalization requirements in pediatric patients with dehydration secondary to viral gastroenteritis. METHODS: The distribution of age, symptoms, clinical and laboratory findings and hospitalization requirements of 156 viral acute gastroenteritis patients with moderate dehydration were evaluated retrospectively. Patients were between 3 months to 16 years of age (mean: 38.7 months). The patients were categorized into four groups according to etiological agents as rotavirus, norovirus, adenovirus, and mixed infections for the comparison of symptoms, clinical characteristics, laboratory results, seasonal distribution, treatment requirements, hospitalization unit, and hospitalization period. Age groups were categorized as 0-24 months, 25-72 months, and >72 months. Clinical characteristics of patients were analyzed for hospitalization period as <24 hours, and ≥24 hours. RESULTS: Moderate-degree dehydration was detected in 156 patients with acute gastroenteritis (156/278) caused by rotavirus (60.5%), norovirus (58%) and adenovirus (42%) respectively. The common symptoms of all patients were vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain and malaise, although fever was seen mostly in the patients of rotavirus. Aspartat aminotransferase (AST) was elevated in rotavirus gastroenteritis (11.5%) more than norovirus (5.4%) and adenovirus (0.8%) infections. Elevated blood urea nitrogen (BUN) levels (>20 mg/dL) were shown in 79.3%, of patients especially in rotavirus (43.8%). CONCLUSIONS: The main agents of acute gastroenteritis which caused dehydration were norovirus and rotavirus in our patients. Rotavirus was detected in most of the hospitalized patients with severe symptoms. AST was prominently elevated in rotavirus gastroenteritis. The clinical characteristics and some laboratory findings including hyperglycemia, leukocytosis, and elevated AST may be helpful in differentiating rotavirus from norovirus gastroenteritis. BUN level was insignificantly elevated in patients with rotavirus.

Hypertransaminasaemia in children with viral gastroenteritis.

We investigated the rates of increase in serum aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and alanine aminotransferase (ALT) levels of patients with rotavirus, norovirus and enteric adenovirus gastroenteritis. Two hundred children with viral gastroenteritis were evaluated for hypertransaminasaemia retrospectively. The patients were between 0 - 17 years (mean ± SD: 5.10 ± 3.01) of age. ALT was elevated up to 67 IU/L in 7 (8.5%) patients in the rotavirus group (n=82), whereas it was elevated in 3 (4.0%) and 1 (2.3%) patients in the norovirus (n=74) and adenovirus (n=44) groups, respectively. AST was elevated up to 89 IU/L in 20 (24.4%) patients in the rotavirus group, whereas it was elevated in 6 (8.1%) and 1 (2.3%) patients in the norovirus and adenovirus groups, respectively. Both transaminases were elevated in 7.3%, 1.4%, and 2.3% of patients in the rotavirus, norovirus, and adenovirus groups, respectively. The increases in ALT and AST levels were found to be significantly higher in the rotavirus group (n=27) than in the norovirus (n=9), and adenovirus group (n=2) (p<0.05). Mean serum ALT and AST levels in the rotavirus group were significantly higher than those in the norovirus and adenovirus group (p<0.05). Our study investigated the correlation between viral gastroenteritis and hypertransaminasaemia. When evaluating a patient with hypertransaminasaemia physicians should remember to consider acute gastroenteritis due to some viruses as a cause of elevated AST and ALT.

Comparison of FISH, RFLP and agar dilution methods for testing clarithromycin resistance of Helicobacter pylori.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Clarithromycin resistance is an important factor of Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) eradication failure in adults and children. There are some tests to determine resistance such as restriction fragment length polimorphism (RFLP), fluorescence in situ hibridisation (FISH), PCR and (culture) agar dilution. Clarithromycin resistance is reported between 16.8%-48.2% in Turkey using PCR, 18% in Japan using RFLP. The aim of the study is to compare the efficacy of FISH, RFLP and culture. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Patients with gastric complaint underwent endoscopic examination. H. pylori status of all patients was tested with urea breath test. Gastric biopsy samples obtained from adult patients and children were studied. Each tissue was analised with FISH, PCR-RFLP anda gar dilution. RESULTS: A total 100 patients were positive by UBT and histology for H. pylori. Tissues from 89 adults and 11 children were evaluated. According to FISH and RFLP clarithromycin resistance was 26% and 16% respectively. Among 100 patients H. pylori was cultured in 52 tissue samples, among these samples 7 were resistant to clarithromycin. There was strong correlation between the results of FISH and RFLP; RFLP and culture; and FISH and culture. CONCLUSION: There is a high ratio of clarithromycin resistance in the studied population. All 3 tests are valuable, but FISH seems to be more sensitive among these tests. We suggest FISH should be used for detecting clarithromycin resistance among H. pylori infected patients before eradication therapy.

Varicella gastritis in an immunocompetent child.

The varicella zoster virus (VZV) is a very rare cause of gastritis. Gastritis caused by VZV can be presented as abdominal pain, vomiting. Most of the cases reported with varicella gastritis in the literature are immunocompromised patients with various kinds of malignancy, and most of these patients are adults. Here we report an adolescent girl with acute abdominal pain. The girl was immunocompetent. Her endoscopically taken biopsy material revealed varicella, and her gastritis was healed with acyclovir therapy. This is a very rare condition and not frequently reported in the literature. The authors want to drive attention to the fact that varicella gastritis can be seen in immunocompetent children, the presentation can be nausea, vomiting and/or (severe) abdominal pain. Serological studies may be less helpful than tissue studies, so interventional procedures should be done.

Cystic lymphangiomatosis with severe intra-abdominal bleeding in a newborn: case report.

We report the case of a newborn girl with intestinal cystic lymphangiomatosis who presented with abdominal distension and intra-abdominal bleeding following a prenatal ultrasound diagnosis of intestinal anomaly. Postnatal abdominal ultrasound revealed disseminated submucosal and intramural cystic dilatations of various sizes in the bowel and intestinal lymphangiomatosis was diagnosed. The presence of severe bleeding diathesis and widespread disease led to conservative treatment. The patient died on postnatal day 7 and postmortem examination confirmed cystic lymphangiomatosis. Detection of intestinal hyperechogenicity and/or dilatation in prenatal ultrasonography and the persistence of these findings during pregnancy are suggestive for pathologies such as meconium ileus, meconium peritonitis, and intestinal atresia. Although rare, intestinal lymphangiomatosis should be kept in mind in patients whose prenatal sonographic findings persist until birth.

[The prevalence of intestinal parasites in children with Helicobacter pylori gastritis evaluated retrospectively]. / Helicobacter pylori Gastriti Olan Çocuklarda Intestinal Parazit Sikliginin Retrospektif Olarak Arastirilmasi.

OBJECTIVE: H. pylori infection is more frequent and is seen in younger ages in developing countries when compared to developed countries. Etiopathogenetic factors include living in crowded families, low educational level of mother, low income and infected drinking water. Intestinal parasites are more frequent in low socioeconomical populations. In this study, it was aimed to determine the prevalence of intestinal parasite in patients with H. pylori gastritis proven with endoscopic and histopathological study. METHODS: Parasitology laboratory results of children who had undergone upper gastrointestinal system endoscopy (UGE) and were proved to have H. pylori gastritis were evaluated retrospectively. Stool samples were examined using native lugol and precipitation by formol ethyl acetate methods. RESULTS: A total of 138 children had undergone upper GIS endoscopy. Among those children, 97,1% had H. pylori positive gastritis. Of those H. pylori positive gastritis children, we obtained the stool test results of 105 children. Six children (5.71%) had Blastocystis hominis and 2 (1.91%) had Giardia intestinalis so a total of 8 patients had (7.61%) intestinal parasites. CONCLUSION: H. pylori and intestinal parasites are frequent among individuals living in low socioeconomical countries. The co-existence of hp and intestinal parasites, which have a negative effect on thriving and iron status in a growing child is a very important public health problem. National sanitation education and methods may help decrease the co-existence of these synergistic microorganisms.