Peptic ulcer and gastritis in uraemia, with particular reference to the effect of Helicobacter pylori infection

Aims: To determine: (i) the prevalence of histological gastritis and peptic ulcer; and (ii) the clinical features of peptic ulcer, in patients with end-stage renal failure. Methods: Upper endoscopy was performed by a single observer in 268 patients with end-stage renal failure over a 6-year period. Gastric histology and Helicobacter pylori status were studied in 40 consecutive subjects in whom there were no contraindications for gastric biopsy and who had not used antibacterial drugs in the preceding 4 weeks. As there are only limited data for healthy volunteers in Singapore, 33 age-, sex- and race-matched patients with functional dyspepsia from an earlier drug trial and 18 healthy volunteers who were not age-matched were used as controls. The clinical features of 43 consecutive uraemic patients with peptic ulcer were compared with those of 118 consecutive non-uraemic peptic ulcer patients seen by the same author. Results: Among uraemic patients, histological gastritis was less common, compared with healthy volunteers and functional dyspepsia patients. Helicobacter pylori infection as assessed by histology was also less common among uraemic patients compared with functional dyspepsia patients, but the difference was not statistically significant on serological assessment. Uraemic patients with ulcer had an equal sex ratio, in contrast to a male preponderance among peptic ulcer patients with normal renal function. Uraemic patients with ulcer were more likely to be pain-free, to present with haemorrhage, to have multiple ulcers and postbulbar duodenal ulcers, but were less likely to have H. pylori infection. Among uraemic subjects, the prevalence of H. pylori infection was similar whether or not peptic ulcer was present. Conclusions: The prevalence of histological gastritis was lower in uraemic patients when compared with patients with functional dyspepsia and healthy volunteers. Peptic ulcers in uraemic subjects have different clinical characteristics from peptic ulcer in non-uraemic subjects. (C) 1999 Blackwell Science Asia Pty Ltd.