Abstract
Objective:
Iron deficiency (ID) and iron deficiency anaemia (IDA) are global major public health problems, particularly in developing countries. Whilst an association between H. pylori infection and ID/IDA has been proposed in the literature, currently there is no consensus. We studied the effects of H. pylori infection on ID/IDA in a cohort of children undergoing upper gastrointestinal endoscopy for upper abdominal pain in two developing and one developed country.
Methods:
In total 311 children (mean age 10.7±3.2 years) from Latin America--Belo Horizonte/Brazil (n = 125), Santiago/Chile (n = 105)--and London/UK (n = 81), were studied. Gastric and duodenal biopsies were obtained for evaluation of histology and H. pylori status and blood samples for parameters of ID/IDA.
Results:
The prevalence of H. pylori infection was 27.7% being significantly higher (p<0.001) in Latin America (35%) than in UK (7%). Multiple linear regression models revealed H. pylori infection as a significant predictor of low ferritin and haemoglobin concentrations in children from Latin-America. A negative correlation was observed between MCV (r = -0.26; p = 0.01) and MCH (r = -0.27; p = 0.01) values and the degree of antral chronic inflammation, and between MCH and the degree of corpus chronic (r = -0.29, p = 0.008) and active (r = -0.27, p = 0.002) inflammation.
Conclusions:
This study demonstrates that H. pylori infection in children influences the serum ferritin and haemoglobin concentrations, markers of early depletion of iron stores and anaemia respectively.
Publication types
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Multicenter Study
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Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
MeSH terms
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Abdominal Pain / blood*
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Abdominal Pain / complications
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Abdominal Pain / microbiology
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Abdominal Pain / pathology
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Adolescent
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Anemia, Iron-Deficiency / blood*
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Anemia, Iron-Deficiency / complications
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Anemia, Iron-Deficiency / microbiology
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Anemia, Iron-Deficiency / pathology
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Biopsy
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Brazil / epidemiology
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Child
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Chile / epidemiology
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Duodenoscopy
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Duodenum / metabolism
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Duodenum / microbiology
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Duodenum / pathology
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Female
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Ferritins / metabolism*
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Gastric Mucosa / metabolism
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Gastroscopy
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Helicobacter Infections / blood*
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Helicobacter Infections / complications
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Helicobacter Infections / microbiology
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Helicobacter Infections / pathology
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Helicobacter pylori / isolation & purification
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Helicobacter pylori / metabolism
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Hemoglobins / metabolism*
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Humans
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Iron / blood*
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London / epidemiology
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Male
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Prevalence
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Stomach / microbiology
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Stomach / pathology
Substances
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Hemoglobins
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Ferritins
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Iron
Grants and funding
This work was mainly funded by the Sixth Framework Program of the European Union, Project CONTENT (INCO-CT-2006-032136). Funds were also provided by Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnolológico (CNPq), Brazil and by CONICYT/BM RUE #29 and FONDECYT # 1100654, Chile. DMMQ is funded under the Sixth Framework Program of the European Union, Project CONTENT (INCO-CT-2006-032136) and the Instituto Nacional de Ciência e Tecnologia/CNPq/Brazil, Instituto de Biomedicina do Semi-Árido Brasileiro. JEC is funded under the Sixth Framework Program of the European Union, Project CONTENT (INCO-CT-2006-032136). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.