Relationship between the severity of hepatitis C virus-related liver disease and the presence of Helicobacter species in the liver: A prospective study

Table 1 Characteristics of the 79 patients at the time of inclusion

Characteristics	Group 1(Hepatitis)	Group 2(Cirrhosis)	Group 3(Controls)
Patients (n)	41	12	26
Age (yr)	50 ± 13	60 ± 11a	49 ± 12
Gender (M/F)	14/27	5/7	13/13
Route of transmission, n (%)
Transfusion	10 (24%)	5 (42%)	-
IVDU	11 (27%)	3 (25%)	-
Other or unknow	20 (49%)	4 (33%)	-
Duration of infection (yr)	19 ± 9	23 ± 5	-
Alcohol intake (g/d)	12 ± 23	12 ± 14	-
AST (xULN)	1.5 ± 1.1	3.7 ± 2.4b	-
ALT (xULN)	1.7 ± 1.3	3.7 ± 2.8b	-
GGT (xULN)	1.4 ± 0.7	2.0 ± 1.9	-
HCV genotype, n (%)			-
1	24 (58%)	8 (67%)	-
2/3	11 (27%)	4 (33%)	-
Other	6 (15%)	0 (0%)	-
HCV viral load (IU/mL)	827 889 ± 123 741	923 026 ± 181 866	-
Histological lesions (Metavir)
Activity, n (%)
A0-1	16 (39%)	0 (0%)	-
A2-3	25 (61%)	12 (100%)a	-
Fibrosis, n (%)
F0-1	16 (39%)	-	-
F2	23 (56%)	-	-
F3	2 (5%)	-	-
F4	-	12 (100%)	-

IVDU: Intravenous drug use; ULN: Upper limit of normal value;

^aP < 0.05,

^bP < 0.01 vs hepatitis group.

Table 2 Factors associated with Helicobacter DNA presence in the liver

Factor	Helicobacter DNA		P
	Present	Absent
Patients (n)	12	41
Age (yr)	46 ± 13	54 ± 13	0.05
Gender (M/F)	5/7	12/29	NS
Route of transmission
Transfusion	3 (25%)	12 (29%)
IVDU	3 (25%)	11 (27%)	NS
Other or unknown	6 (50%)	18 (44%)
Duration of infection (yr) (n = 36)	18 ± 7	21 ± 8	NS
Alcohol intake (g/d)	5 ± 8	14 ± 24	NS
AST (xULN)	2.2 ± 2.1	1.9 ± 1.5	NS
ALT (xULN)	2.7 ± 2.9	2.0 ± 1.5	NS
GGT (xULN)	1.3 ± 0.5	1.6 ± 1.2	NS
HCV genotype
1	9 (75%)	23 (56%)
2/3	2 (17%)	13 (24%)	NS
Other	1 (8%)	5 (20%)
HCV viral load (IU/mL)	663 824 ± 569 933	972 157 ± 1 388 853	NS
Histological lesions (Metavir score)
Activity
A0-1	4 (33%)	12 (29%)
A2-3	8 (67%)	29 (71%)	NS
Fibrosis
F0-2	7 (58%)	32 (78%)
F3-4	5 (42%)	9 (22%)	NS

IVDU: Intravenous drug use; ULN: Upper limit of normal value; NS: Not significant.

Table 3 Results of H pylori serology, urea breath test (UBT) and species identification in the liver, for the 16 patients positive for Helicobacter genus-specific PCR in the liver

Groups	Patient No.	H pylori infection		H pylori PCR				H. pullorum PCR	Conclusion
		Serology	UBT	23S rDNA	ureA	26 kDa	glmM	cdtB
Group 1	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Not identified
(Hepatitis)	2	-	-	-	-	+	-	+	“H. pullorum”-like1
	3	-	-	+	+	+	-	-	“H pylori”-like1
	4	+	+	+	+	-	-	-	“H pylori”-like
	5	+	+	+	+	+	-	-	“H pylori”-like1
	6	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Not identified
	7	-	-	+	-	-	-	-	“H pylori”-like1
Group 2	8	-	-	+	+	+	-	-	“H pylori”-like1
(Cirrhosis)	9	-	-	+	+	+	+	-	“H pylori”-like1
	10	ND	-	+	+	+	+	-	“H pylori”-like
	11	-	-	-	-	+	-	-	“H pylori”-like
	12	+	-	-	-	+	-	+	“H. pullorum”-like
Group 3	13	-	-	-	-	+	-	-	“H pylori”-like
(Controls)	14	-	-	-	-	+	-	-	“H pylori”-like1
	15	+	ND	-	+	+	-	-	“H pylori”-like
	16	-	-	+	+	+	-	-	“H pylori”-like

¹Also confirmed by 16S rDNA sequence; ND: Not determined. The 16S rRNA amplified primer-less sequences of approximate 1370 bp for biopsies 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 9 and 14 were submitted to GenBank and assigned accession numbers DQ062210 to DQ062216, respectively.