Anti-Helicobacter antibodies and fasting gastrin concentrations in children with recurrent abdominal pain

ABSTRACT

Fifty children divided into 2 groups were studied. Group I included 30 children with non organic recurrent abdominal pain [RAP] as defined by Apley and Naish, aged 3.5-11.8 years. Group II [control group] consisted of 20 apparently healthy children with no gastrointestinal symptoms nor signs, aged 4 -10.5 years. All children were subjected to detailed history taking and thorough physical examination, urine and stool analysis, complete blood count and abdominal ultrasonography. Anti-Helicobacter IgG antibodies were investigated by immunoassay and fasting gastrin concentrations were measured using the Double Antibody Gastrin procedure for all children. In the present study, children with and without RAP were well matched for age and sex. The mean fasting gastrin concentration was not significantly related to RAP. Thirty percent [30%] of studied children with RAP were seropositive for H-pylori compared to 15% only of control children. In children seropositive for H. Pylori, there were no significant relations between sex, age and fasting gastrin concentration to occurrence of RAP. Similarly, the relation of sex, age and fasting gastrin concentration to occurrence of RAP was not significant among children seronegative for H. pylori. Evaluation of the differences between seropositive and seronegative children in our study showed that H. pylori infection increased fasting gastrin concentration by more than 100%. It could be concluded that H. pylori is a common infection in our children. It results in a marked rise of fasting gastrin with its possible clinicopathologic consequences. However, H. pylori infection and hypergastrinemia showed no significant causal relationship to RAP at the currently available clinical characteristics