Assessment of Pathological Findings of the Stomach in Morbid Obese Patients who are Candidates for Bariatric Surgery and the Association with Helicobacter Pylori, Biochemical Status and Inflammatory Factors

Abstract Introduction: Obesity and upper gastrointestinal disorders are the public health problems in the world and Iran. The role of routine preoperative upper gastrointestinal endoscopy of the morbid obese patients undergoing bariatric surgery is a subject of discussion. The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between gastric pathological findings in morbid obese patients with demographic information, Helicobacter pylori, biochemical status and inflammatory factors. Methods: Upper digestive endoscopic findings, including rapid urease test and pathological examples in the six areas of stomach were examined in 196 morbid obese patients who were candidates for bariatric surgery. Results: demographic information, biochemical status and inflammatory factors of the two groups of patients with and without pathological findings in the six areas of stomach weren’t different (For all of them P-value>0.050). Also, the presence of Helicobacter pylori was associated with pathology finding in only two areas: small corpus and large corpus (P-value = 0.006 and P-value<0.001, respectively). The specificity and sensitivity of rapid urease test were calculated to be 72.4% and 77.5%, respectively. Conclusion: according to the association of Helicobacter pylori infection and pathological findings in small corpus and large corpus areas of stomach and the results of other studies that Helicobacter pylori infection increases the chance of gastric cancer and due to high false negative rate of rapid urease test (22.5%) It is recommended that for patients with high risk of gastric cancer use pathological samples, especially in these two areas, to diagnose Helicobacter pylori infection.