Campylobacter pylori Gastritis and Peptic Ulcer in Children

Abstract

Sir. —Although a rapidly expanding body of literature provides much information concerning the prevalence and the significance of CP in adults, 1 there is little information as to whether the association of this organism with histologic gastritis represents in childhood a causal relationship or merely an association. After reading the article by Kilbridge et al, we were stimulated to report in brief our preliminary data to address this question. Recently we initiated a prospective study in which we attempted to identify CP in antral biopsies obtained from children undergoing upper gastrointestinal tract endoscopy for chronic abdominal pain, hematemesis, vomiting, and unexplained iron-deficiency anemia. To date, complete evaluation has been obtained on 24 children. In 11 of the 24 antral biopsies, the light microscopy showed evidence of chronic gastritis, which was characterized by a diffuse inflammatory cell infiltration of the lamina propria consisting of plasma cells and lymphocytes. Campylobacter pylori was detected