Correlation between Helicobacter pylori Infection and Lymphoid Follicle Formation in Gastrectomy Specimens

ABSTRACT

Histopathologic studies for Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori)-associated chronic gastritis have been mostly undertaken with endoscopic biopsy specimens, often leading to an inappropriate evaluation of the gastric mucosal alterations. The purpose of this paper was designed to investigate the actual prevalence of lymphoid follicle formation by H. pylori infection using the resected stomachs. A total of 16 fresh gastrectomy specimens bearing gastric carcinoma were examined under the quick and gentle procedure, with which H. pylori was detected in 12 cases (75%) and lymphoid follicles in 14 cases (87.5%), while the detection rate of H. pylori remained 56.3% in the control group which comprised the same 16 resected stomachs and were examined by routine tissue preparation procedure without any special care. There was a significant correlation between the presence of H. pylori and lymphoid follicle formation (p=0.05), but no correlation was found between the grades of H. pylori and lymphoid follicles. The topographical distribution of H. pylori or lymphoid follicles in antrum and body gave no statistical difference. Similarly, there was no correlation between H. pylori infection and intestinal metaplasia, activity of chronic gastritis or histologic types of accompanying adenocarcinoma. We conclude that studies of the gastric mucosal change by H. pylori infection using the gastrectomy specimens provide a useful information for analysis of lymphoid follicle formation which is a consistent morphological characteristic of H. pylori infection.