Prevalence of Helicobacter Pylori infection in children with inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) in Lithuania

Abstract

Introduction. Worldwide the incidence of inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) is increasing. 25 percent of patients are with established disease in childhood. A commonly considered hypothesis is a trinity of overlapping factors; susceptible genotype leading to an inappropriate immune response to bacterial microbiota within the gut. Since the mid-1990s, an increasing number of studies have investigated the association between H. pylori infections and IBD. Laboratory data illustrate H. pylori's ability to induce immune tolerance and limit inflammatory responses. The etiology of the low prevalence of H. pylori infection in patients with IBD is largely unknown. Aims and methods. To assess the seroprevalence of H. pulori infection in a group of children with IBD and to compare this to a group of noormal controls matched for age and sex in Lithuania. – The study included thirdy five consecutive children with IBD (21 with ulcerative colitis (UC) and 14 with Crohn's disease (CD) and 100 healthy, age- and gender-matched controls. [...].