proportion of helicobacter pylori among dyspeptic patients detected by molecular methods in a teaching hospital in sri lanka

Infection with helicobacter pylori is considered as a major cause of chronic gastritis, peptic ulcer disease and gastric cancer. more than half of the world’s population is infected with h. pylori. in sri lanka various groups have reported a prevalence ranging from 3% to 70% over the last decade. the aim of this study was to determine the current proportion of h. pylori and risk factors for h. pylori infections. the study was a cross sectional, descriptive study in which 100 dyspeptic patients who were required to undergo endoscopy examination were included. the study was carried out at a teaching hospital in sri lanka. in-house urease test and pcr amplification of the glmm gene of h. pylori was performed to diagnose h. pylori infection. a questionnaire was filled to collect socio-demographic data from the dyspeptic patients. eighteen dyspeptic patients were positive for h. pylori by both in-house clo (campylobacter-like organism test) test and polymerase chain reaction (pcr). ten of cases were male (18%) while eight were female (17%). there was no association between the demographic factors and risk of h. pylori infection. the proportion of h. pylori infections was found to be 18% in the study population. there was no significant association with h. pylori and the studied demographic factors