Clinical and endoscopic findings in children with peptic ulcer in terms of Helicobacter pylori in Incheon

Abstract

Purpose: Interest in peptic ulcer in children has been relatively low because the disease is rarer in children than in adults and there were restrictions in the application of endoscopy to children, but the recent development of pediatric endoscopy is activating research on pediatric peptic ulcer. Thus, this study compared the H. pylori infection rate and clinical and endoscopic findings among pediatric patients diagnosed with peptic ulcer. Methods: We analyzed retrospectively 58 pediatric patients for whom whether to be infected with H. pylori was confirmed selected out of pediatric patients diagnosed with gastric ulcer or duodenal ulcer through upper gastrointestinal endoscopy at the Department of Pediatrics of Gachon University Gil Hospital during the period from January 2002 to December 2007. A case was considered H. pylori positive if H. pylori was detected in the Giemsa stain of tissue or the results of UBT (urea breath test) and CLO (rapid urease test) were both positive. Results: Of the pediatric patients, 37 were infected with H. pylori and 21 were not. The H. pylori infection rate increased with aging and the result was statistically significant (p < 0.05). However, H. pylori infection was not in a statistically significant correlation with sex, chief complaint, and gastroduodenal ulcer (p > 0.05). Conclusion: H. pylori infection increased with aging, but was not significantly correlated with gastroduodenal ulcer. Further research may need to examine prospectively the relation between H. pylori and gastroduodenal ulcer in the Incheon area. © 2014 by The Korean Society of Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition.