Identification of coccoid forms of Helicobacter pylori and their clinical significance for eradication therapy / 中华传染病杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To investigate the factors associated with the occurrence of coccoid forms in clinical isolates of Helicobacter pylori ( H. pylori) and its relationship with the pathological changes of gastric mucosa. Methods:A total of 66 H. pylori-infected patients admitted to People′s Hospital of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region from January 2020 to June 2021 were included.The clinical data of the patients were collected. Immunohistochemical staining was performed on gastric mucosal biopsy specimen to observe the occurrence of coccoid forms of H. pylori and pathological changes of gastric mucosa. Chi-square test was used for statistical analysis. Results:After immunohistochemical staining of 66 gastric mucosa biopsy specimens from H. pylori-infected patients, the co-existence of helical and coccoid forms of H. pylori was found in 26(39.39%) specimens, and no simple coccoid H. pylori change was found. Among them, the patients with a history of eradication therapy had a coccoid forms rate of 52.63%(20/38), and those without a history of eradication therapy had a coccoid forms rate of 21.43%(6/28), and the difference was statistically significant ( χ2=6.57, P=0.012). There were no significant differences in the coccoid forms rates between patients with different gender, ethnicity, age and gastric mucosal pathological changes (including atrophy, gastric intestinal metaplasia, inflammation, activity)(all P>0.050). Seventeen (73.9%) of the 23 patients whose endoscopy was more than one to three months from the last eradication therapy developed coccoid forms, while three of 15 patients whose endoscopy was more than three months from the last eradication therapy had coccoid forms, and the difference was statistically significant ( χ2=10.59, P=0.002). Conclusions:The transformation of H. pylori coccoid forms is related to the previous eradication therapy. The coccoid forms of H. pylori is equally pathogenic relative to the helical forms of H. pylori.