Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Hilary Suzawa, MD
Updated July 2013
by Anoop Agrawal, MD
Nobel Prize
The 2005 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
3 October 2005
The Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet
has today decided to award
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for 2005
jointly to
Barry J. Marshall and J. Robin Warren
for their discovery of
"the bacterium Helicobacter pylori and its role in
gastritis and peptic ulcer disease"
Helicobacter Pylori
• What is it?
– A spiral-shaped gram-negative bacterium
• Found in colonized gastric mucosa or adherent
to the epithelial lining of the stomach
• Causes continuous gastric inflammation in
virtually all infected persons
• Urease hydrolyzes urea into CO2 and ammonia
and allows H. pylori to survive in acidic
environment
How do you get infection?
• Infection is acquired via ingestion orally
• Transmitted during childhood in most cases
• Prevalence varies geographically
• Risk factors—increased age, AA or LA, lower
level of education, developing country
• May be asymptomatic (90% of infected)
• May have sx of dyspepsia –burning,
distention/bloating, nausea, belching/ flatulence,
halitosis
Prevalence
• What percent of U.S. population is infected
with H. pylori?
• Estimated 30-40%
Which of the following diseases
is not caused by H. pylori?
• A. duodenal ulcers
• B. gastric ulcers
• C. gastroesophageal reflux
• D. gastric MALT lymphoma
• E. gastric cancer
Which of the following diseases
is not caused by H. pylori?
• A. duodenal ulcers
• B. gastric ulcers
• C. gastroesophageal reflux
• D. gastric MALT lymphoma
• E. gastric cancer
Why do we care?
• H. pylori is the cause of most cases of Peptic Ulcer
Disease (PUD)
– Increases risk of both duodenal and gastric ulcers
– 95% of pt with duodenal ulcers and 80% of pt with
gastric ulcers are infected
– Lifetime risk of peptic ulcer in pt with H. pylori is ~3%.
• H. pylori causes chronic gastritis
• H. pylori is a primary risk factor for gastric cancer (4th
most common CA worldwide)
– Categorized as a group I carcinogen
– Increased risk if H. pylori infxn for >10 yrs.
• H. pylori increases risk of MALT lymphoma
Which of these patients should
be tested for H. pylori, rather
than have endoscopy?
• A. 63 yo female with anemia and early
satiety.
• B. 46 yo male with progressive dysphagia
and history of weight loss
• C. 56 yo with new onset dyspepsia and
recurrent vomiting for the past 2-3 months
• D. 40 yo female with abdominal pain and
dyspepsia
When to test?
• American College of Gastroenterology
Guidelines
– Previously in 1998
– Revised in August 2007 and published in
American Journal of Gastroenterology