Clinical, histological, and endoscopic characteristics of Helicobacter pylori infection in patients attended at a public pediatric hospital in Peru

Abstract

Objective: To determine the clinical, endoscopic, and histological characteristics of Helicobacter pylori infection in children at a public pediatric hospital in 2013.

Materials and Methods: It is an observational, descriptive, cross-sectional, and retrospective study. A census sampling was collected to gather information from medical records and from pathologic and endoscopic reports of patients under 18 years old treated at the Department of Pediatric Gastroenterology. The statistical software Stata v.14.0 was used for the analysis. The Institutional Research Ethics Committee of the Instituto Nacional de Salud del Niño approved the study (code PI-52-2020).

Results: Out of a total of 201 medical records of pediatric patients with Helicobacter pylori infection treated in 2013, 58.2% had abdominal pain as the main symptom. The most common location of gastric mucosal lesions was predominantly the antrum (62.2%), and the gastric body (25.9%). Regarding histopathological findings, most patients had mild (51.7%) or moderate (40.3%) chronic gastritis.

Conclusion: This study reveals that abdominal pain was the primary symptom in over half of pediatric patients with Helicobacter pylori infection. Gastric mucosal lesions were most frequently observed in the antrum, and gastric biopsies showed predominantly superficial chronic gastritis with mild to moderate inflammation.