ABSTRACT
Helicobacter pylori is a well known cause of peptic ulcer disease in adults, but its role in gastrointestinal diseases in children is not fully established. This is a retrospective study conducted in the Department of Pediatrics, Civil Hospital, Karachi from February 1995 to February 1997. The endoscopies record was reviewed to find out the correlation between symptomatology and endoscopic findings of 70 children tested for presence of H. pylori by urease, histopathology and/or culture of biopsy specimens. Among these children, 29 were found to be positive for H. pylori. The most frequent symptoms found in these children were, pain in epigastrium [17], followed by vomiting [10] and heartburn [9]. Other symptoms observed were, abdominal distention [3] hemetamesis [4] malena [2], diarrhea [2] and failure to thrive [1] children. Abnormal findings on endoscopy were found in 19 children: These included duodenal ulcer in majority of children 11[57%], gastritis in 3, gastric ulcer, duodenitis and gastric erosions were present in 2 children each. It was concluded that a significant correlation exists between symptomatology and endoscopy finding in peptic ulcer disease of Helicobacter pylori positive children