Recurrent abdominal pain and Helicobacter pylori infection in children.

UNLABELLED Recurrent chronic upper abdominal pain is a common problem in children and it has been associated with Helicobacter Pylori gastritis. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES We under took this study, to find out the prevalence of Helicobacter pylori gastritis in children with recurrent chronic upper abdominal pain, in our set up. MATERIAL AND METHODS This was prospective study carried out at KRL Hospital, Islamabad. Forty three children with chronic recurrent upper abdominal pain (age 3 to 14 years), underwent diagnostic gastroscopy and antral biopsies with histopathology, over a period of one year. Another 42 children of the same age group were taken as control group. Fifteen patients, who tested positive for H. pylori were tested for IgG antibodies in whole blood and compared with 15 patients having negative histology for H. pylori. RESULTS Thirty two (75%) children tested positive for H. pylori, in the test group, as compared to 17 (40%) histological positives in the control group (P = < 0.1). The patients who were tested for IgG antibodies showed that this test has 93% sensitivity, 60% specificity and a negative predictive value of 90% as compared to histological identification. CONCLUSION Recurrent chronic upper abdominal pain in children, in our population has a significant association with Helicobacter pylori gastritis. Testing of IgG antibodies for H. pylori in whole blood can be used as initial, non invasive screening test for this organism.