Jonaitis L, Kiudelis G, Slepavicius P, Kupcinskas L. High rate of Helicobacter pylori reinfection in Lithuanian peptic ulcer patients. World J Gastrointest Pathophysiol 2016; 7(1): 181-185 [PMID: 26909241 DOI: 10.4291/wjgp.v7.i1.181]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Laimas Jonaitis, MD, PhD, Department of Gastroenterology, Medical Academy, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Eiveniu 2, LT-50028 Kaunas, Lithuania. laimasj@takas.lt
Research Domain of This Article
Gastroenterology & Hepatology
Article-Type of This Article
Prospective Study
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Gastrointest Pathophysiol. Feb 15, 2016; 7(1): 181-185 Published online Feb 15, 2016. doi: 10.4291/wjgp.v7.i1.181
High rate of Helicobacter pylori reinfection in Lithuanian peptic ulcer patients
Laimas Jonaitis, Gediminas Kiudelis, Paulius Slepavicius, Limas Kupcinskas
Laimas Jonaitis, Gediminas Kiudelis, Paulius Slepavicius, Limas Kupcinskas, Department of Gastroenterology, Medical Academy, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, LT-50028 Kaunas, Lithuania
Author contributions: Jonaitis L, Kiudelis G and Kupcinskas L designed and planned the study, recruited the patients, collected all the data, and performed all the investigations; Jonaitis L performed statistical analysis; Jonaitis L, Slepavicius P prepared the manuscript; all authors were involved in drafting and revising the manuscript.
Institutional review board statement: The study was reviewed and approved by the Kaunas Regional Biomedical Research Ethics Committee (Protocol No. 8/2011).
Informed consent statement: All study participants, or their legal guardian, provided informed written consent prior to study enrollment.
Conflict-of-interest statement: Laimas Jonaitis, Gediminas Kiudelis, Paulius Slepavicius, Limas Kupcinskas declare that there are no conflicts of interest.
Data sharing statement: Technical appendix, statistical code, and dataset available from the corresponding author at laimasj@takas.lt. Participants gave informed consent for data sharing. No additional data are available.
Correspondence to: Laimas Jonaitis, MD, PhD, Department of Gastroenterology, Medical Academy, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Eiveniu 2, LT-50028 Kaunas, Lithuania. laimasj@takas.lt
Telephone: +370-37326264 Fax: +370-37331458
Received: May 27, 2015 Peer-review started: May 29, 2015 First decision: June 19, 2015 Revised: August 19, 2015 Accepted: November 30, 2015 Article in press: December 3, 2015 Published online: February 15, 2016 Processing time: 249 Days and 0.4 Hours
Core Tip
Core tip: The reinfection rate of Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) varies according to geographical area. In regions with higher socioeconomic status and lower prevalence of H. pylori it is only 1.68% of cases. In developing areas, the reinfection rate could be much higher. Lithuania, as well as other Eastern and Central European countries, is in transition, and the prevalence of H. pylori is not as low as in Western regions, but not as high as in developing countries. According to our study, the H. pylori reinfection rate in Lithuania is relatively high (the annual rate being 3.36%), probably because of the high prevalence of H. pylori. This could indirectly reflect differences in the socioeconomic status between Western and Eastern European countries.
