RESUMO
Background: Upper gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms are common complaints affecting 25--40% of the general population and are common causes of health care utilisation and substantially affect the quality of life. In day-to-day practice our clinicians have to face good number of patients with various upper GI symptoms. But we have limited data on the prevalence of different upper GI symptoms in our community. Objective: The present study aimed to find out the prevalence of different upper GI symptoms in the general population of a district in Bangladesh. Materials and Methods: This population-based observational study was conducted in a selected district of Bangladesh. Three thousand subjects selected by cluster sampling method were interviewed by a valid bowel disease questionnaire. Student’s t test and chi-square tests were used for comparison of different variables with significance level set at 0.05. Results: Among the study population 1523 were men and 1477 were women with a mean age of 33.91 ± 16.43 years. A total of 2273 (75.8%) persons had at least one upper GI symptom, 2072 (69.1%) had 2 or more symptoms and 1705 (56.8%) had 3 or more symptoms in the prior 3 months. Nine hundred sixty three subjects (32.1%) had upper abdominal pain, 1265 (42.16%) had bloating, 1354 (45.13%) had heart-burn, 1166 (38.87%) had chest pain, 1347 (44.9%) had early satiation and 258 (8.6%) had vomiting. Around 249 (8.3%, male 123, female 126, P=0.691) was diagnosed as functional dyspepsia, 187 (6.2%, male 82, female 105, P=0.059) as gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) and 55 (1.83%, male 27, female 28, P=0.892) as upper abdominal bloating. Only one woman fulfilled the criteria for functional gallbladder or sphincter of Oddi dysfunction. Approximately 40.56% dyspeptic patients had overlapping GERD symptoms. Symptom prevalence was found to decrease with increased number, frequency and duration of symptoms. Conclusion: Upper GI symptoms are prevalent in our community. Multiple upper GI symptoms do exist simultaneously. Symptom prevalence varies with number, frequency and duration of symptoms.
RESUMO
Background: Infection with Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) is a recognized cause of peptic ulcer and gastritis. Persistence of infection is a definite risk factor for gastric malignancy. Healing of gastritis after eradication of H. pylori reduces the risks of peptic ulcer disease and gastric malignancy. Objectives: To find out the relationship of H. pylori with erosive and nonerosive gastritis, the effect of anti-H. pylori therapy and to compare the effects of anti-H. pylori therapy between two types of gastritis. Materials and Methods: This prospective study was done in the Gastroenterology department of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University, Dhaka from June 2008 to May 2009. One hundred eighty dyspeptic patients were enrolled for the study. Patients with gastritis diagnosed by endoscopy underwent rapid urease test (RUT). RUT positive patients were considered to have H. pylori infection and were treated with triple therapy (omeprazole, amoxycillin and metronidiazole) for 14 days. Treatment responses were assessed by clinical history and also by endoscopic biopsy and RUT. Results of endoscopic findings and RUT after treatment were compared with pretreatment status. Results: Seventy patients completed the treatment and finally could be assessed. Endoscopic findings of 70 patients revealed that 56 (80%) patients had erosive gastritis and 14 (20%) patients had nonerosive gastritis. After treatment, 47 (67.1%) lesions became normal, 16 (22.9%) remained erosive and 7 (10%) non-erosive as before. Out of 14 non-erosive diseases, 7 became normal, while out of 56 erosive diseases 40 became normal. The erosive group responded significantly better than the non-erosive group (c2=32.766, p<0.001). Fifty nine (84.3%) patients with gastritis showed negative urease test after treatment. Conclusion: Strong relation between H. pylori infection and gastritis was found. Majority were antral erosive gastritis. Erosive group responded better than non-erosive group.