الفهرس 
INTRODUCTIONOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) is the most common chronic infectious agent worldwide both in adults and in children. It is usually acquired during early years of childhood, through the fecal-oral and oral-oral route and if not treated may persist throughout a person’s lifetime. In children, H. pylori infection is associated with age, indicators of poor socioeconomic status such as residential crowding and parents’ education level.
Our aim in the present study was to evaluate the effect of Helicobacter pylori gastritis on gastric acid pH. This might be important for the future policies for the eradication of H. pylori in order to prevent severe diseases in children and adults as a complication of hypochlorhydria.
To achieve this goal, the present study was carried out on 110 symptomatic children who were referred for endoscopy suffering from hematemsis, abdominal pain and/or vomiting. 54 of those children were diagnosed to have H. pylori infection by H.pylori stool antigen, histopathology and gastric acid secretion test and 56 children were diagnosed as H. pylori negative.
Statistical analysis of data obtained from the present study showed the following results
1- Abdominal pain was the most common clinical manifestation in patients who were referred to our pediatric gastroenterology clinic for upper gastrointestinal endoscopy (77.78%) with statistical significance between H. pylori and abdominal pain.
2- Nausea and heart burn were the most common associated symptoms of abdominal pain.
3- Family history especially from the mother’s side, and low social status were important risk factors for H.pylori infection
4- Microcytic hypochromic anemia was higher in H.pylori positive cases compared to H.pylori negative cases
5- H.pylori stool antigen test proved to be a highly sensitive and specific for detecting H pylori infection in children with chronic abdominal pain and dyspepsia with 96.67% sensitivity and 86.84% specificity.
6- Significant relations were found between duodenal endoscopic findings and antral predominant endoscopic findings (erythema, punctate hemorrhage and nodularity).
7- Gastric erythema, antral nodularity, erosions and punctate hemorrhage were the common endoscopic findings among H. pylori patients.
8- Antral nodularity was highly specific for H .pylori gastritis in children.
9- Low Stimulated gastric secretion volume in H. pylori infected children indicate that the H. pylori causes impairment of acid secretory responses.
10- Hypochlorhydria was significantly more frequent in children with H.pylori infection
11- Microcytic hypochromic anemia was higher in hypochlorhydric cases compared to normal pH cases.
12- Significant relations were found between the severity and activity H. pylori corpus gastritis and the presence of hypochlorhydria among H. pylori infected children.
13- Gastric acid secretion was decreased in H. pylori-positive patients with corpus predominate gastritis.