INDIAN PEDIATRICS VOLUME 35-APRIL 1998 HELICOBACTER PYLORI INFECTION IN RECURRENT ABDOMINAL PAIN Deepak Bansal, A.K. Patwari, V.L. Malhotra*, Veena Malhotra** and V.K. Anand From the Division of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition, Department of Pediatrics and *Microbiology, Lady Hardinge Medical College and Associated Kalawati Saran Children's Hospital and "Department of Pathology, G.B. Pant Hospital, New Delhi 110 002. Reprint requests: Dr. A.K. Patwari, Professor of Pediatrics, Lady Hardinge Medical College and Associated Kalawati Saran Children's Hospital, New Delhi 110 001. Manuscript received: May 27,1997; Initial review completed: July 31,1997; Revision accepted: November 4,1997 Objective: To study the relationship between Helicobacter pylori (Hp) infection and recurrent abdominal pain (RAP) and to evaluate various modalities to diagnose Hp infection. Design: Prospective case control study. Setting: Teaching hospital. Methods: Children between 3-12 years of age with RAP in whom upper gastrointestinal endoscopic examination was indicated were studied. Endoscopic biopsy specimen were collected from duodenum, antrum and esophagus. Apart from histopathological examination of biopsy material, rapid urease test (RUT) of the antral biopsy specimen and blood examination to estimate specific JgG antibodies to Hp by Indirect Solid Phase Enzyme Immunoassay was performed. The results of Hp IgG antibodies was compared with age matched controls. Results: Thirty one children with RAP were subjected to endoscopic examination and their anti Hp IgG antibodies status compared with 26 controls. Hp colonization was detected in 7 children (23%) with RAP; by RUT in 23% and antral biopsy in 16% of cases. Anti Hp IgG antibodies were also positive in almost equal proportion (19%) of controls (p - 0.757). Endoscopic examination revealed esophagitis in 16% of cases and none had evidence of gastric or duodenal erosion, ulcer or cobblestone appearance of antrum. A significant correlation of Hp was noticed with chronic antral gastritis (p=0.002), chronic duodenitis (p=0.02) and age >W years (p=0.02). No significant correlation was noticed between Hp colonization and various socioeconomic risk factors. Conclusion: Hp does not seem to be commonly associated with RAP in our patient population as Hp colonization was detected in only 23% of cases which was not significantly higher than the seroprevalence of anti Hp IgG antibodies in the controls. However, a small sample size of our study limits drawing any firm conclusions. Antral gastritis and chronic duodenitis had a significant correlation with Hp colonization. RUT was found to be a reliable diagnostic test to detect Hp. Key words: Indirect solid phase enzyme immunoassay, Helicobacter pylori, Rapid urease test, Recurrent abdominal pain. ECURRENT abdominal pain (RAP) discovered by Warren and Marshall has been widely reported to affect at 1983(2), has opened a new era of discovery least 10% of children over the age of 5 and understanding of gastroduodenal pa- years. Apley reported that an organic cause thology. Hp related gastritis has been sug- could be identified in fewer than 10% of gested as a cause of recurrent abdominal such children(l). Helicobacter pylori (Hp), pain but not consistently proven(3). 329 R