Seroprevalence of Helicobacter pylori among the diabetic population in Bangladesh: a comparative serological study on the newly diagnosed and older diabetics.

ABSTRACT

This prospective study was designed to find out the prevalence of H. pylori infection among the diabetic population in Bangladesh with a comparison between the newly diagnosed and older diabetics. For this study 520 diabetic patients 152 (29%) newly diagnosed and 368 (71%) older diabetics of both sexes (250 male, 270 female) with a mean age of 58.5 +/- 12.04 years (range 10-70 years), were selected randomly from out and in-patient departments of BIRDEM, Dhaka. Mean fasting and 2 hours post load blood glucose level of the studied population was 10.53 +/- 4.08 mmol/L and 18.35 +/- 9.44 mmol/L respectively. The mean duration of the newly diagnosed diabetics was 0.44 +/- 0.35 years (range 2 days-1 year) and 6.78 +/- 5.45 (range 1-30) years for the older diabetics. H. pylori infection was defined as a true positive ELISA test result of > 1.5 standard deviation above the cut-off values of 15 AU/ml for adults and 10 AU/ml for children for anti H. pylori IgG. Of the studied population 441 (84.8%)--132 newly diagnosed and 309 (83.96%) older diabetics were seropositive for H. pylori infection. No significant differences were observed between the newly diagnosed and older diabetics (86.84% Vs 83.96%; p > 0.05).