ABSTRACT
This study was conducted to evaluate the role of H. pylori infection with upper GIT symptoms in children, 40 patients [24 males, 16 females; mean age 10 years, range 6-14 years] as well as 20 apparently healthy controls were recruited into the study. According to the type of GIT complaint, the patients were classified into 3 groups : group I included 20 patients presented with recurrent abdominal pain [RAP], group II included 12 patients presented with repeated vomiting, and group III included 8 patients presented with haematemesis as a main complaint. The seroprevalence of H. pylori was determined by ELISA in all cases of the study. Furthermore our patients were subjected to upper GIT endoscopy and gastric biopsy which was taken for histological examination. Our results showed increased percentage of H. pylori seropositivity in patients [55%] compared to controls [10%]. Endoscopically, the commonest abnormality was the oesophagitis followed by antral nodularity and gastric ulcers. H. pylori [+ve] cases had a higher incidence of antral nodularity in comparison with H. pylori-ve cases. Histopathologically, histological evidence of chronic gastritis was present in gastric biopsies from 14/40 [35%] children, 8 of them were positive for H. pylori bacilli on Giemsa staining. From these results, it is concluded that H. pyloric may have a strong association with upper gastro- intestinal symptoms in children