الملخص
The prevalence of helicobacter pylori infection was studied in 152 subjects with a normal upper gastrointestinal endoscopy, 125 with duodenal ulcer, 25 with gastric ulcer, 46 with erosive gastritis and 9 with erosive duodenitis. Two biopsies fron duodenum, antrum and fub¿ndus were obtained from each subject during endoscopy for histological diagnosis and Helicobacter pylori search. None of the patients with normal endoscopy and 2 percent of patients with duodenal ulcer had Helicobacter pylori in duodenal biopsies. These last patients had a significantly higher frecuency of Helicobacter pylori in the antrum (71 percent) than the rest of the studied groups. Five percent of subjects with normal endoscopy and 5 percent of those with duodenal ulcer had Helicobacter pylori in the antrum. An active gastritis was demonstrated in almost all patients with Helicobacter infection. Instestinal metaplasia occurred almost exclusively in the abscence of Helicobacter Pylori infection