Helicobacter Pylori as a Risk Factor for Post Infectious Irritable Bowel Syndrome

Backgrounds: Helicobacter Pylori is a common pathogen leading cause of peptic ulcer disease. Several studies linked Helicobacter Pylori infection and the development of irritable bowel syndrome. Aims: We investigated the effectiveness of standard triple therapy and the association between H.Pylori infection and the development of post infectious irritable bowel syndrome. Materials and methods: Prospective analytical study was conducted and we appointed 200 H.Pylori positive patients, they consented and subjected to structured questionnaire and received standard triple therapy (14 days course of proton pump inhibitor (PPI), clarithromycin and either amoxicillin or metronidazole). After three months all patients re-evaluated regarding their symptoms and tested for eradication. Additionally we evaluated the association between H.Pylori infection and irritable bowel syndrome

Efficacy of Twice a Day Bismuth Quadruple Therapy for Second-Line Treatment of Helicobacter pylori Infection

Bismuth quadruple therapy (BQT) is an effective treatment for Helicobacter pylori infection. However, frequent dosing schedules of BQT regimen often compromise drug adherence and may affect treatment outcomes. This retrospective study aimed to investigate the efficacy of twice-daily BQT compared to that of four times a day therapy. From August 2018 to November 2020, adult patients who failed first-line standard triple therapy and underwent BQT were eligible. Patients were categorized into two groups according to dosing schedule: (i) the BQT group (n = 213) who received standard BQT administered four times a day; and (ii) the BQTb group (n = 141) who received proton pump inhibitor, bismuth 600 mg, metronidazole 500 mg, and tetracycline 1 g twice a day. The eradication rate did not differ between the BQT (92.5%) and the BQTb groups (90.1%) (p = 0.441). Adherence and adverse event rate were similar between the two groups. Multivariate analysis showed that current smoking was associated with eradication failure; however, dosing frequency was not associated with the efficacy of eradication therapy. This study suggested that twice a day BQT is as effective as four times a day therapy for second-line treatment of H. pylori infection.

Second-Line Bismuth-Containing Quadruple Therapy for Helicobacterpylori Infection: A 12-Year Study of Annual Eradication Rates

Background: Bismuth-containing quadruple therapy (BQT) consisting of a proton-pump inhibitor (PPI), bismuth, metronidazole and tetracycline is recommended as a second-line treatment for Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection when PPI-based standard triple therapy (STT) consisting of a PPI, amoxicillin and clarithromycin is unsuccessful. The purpose of this study was to analyze the long-term results of BQT as a second-line therapy to determine its effectiveness. Methods: This study included 643 subjects who failed first-line STT and received 7 or 10–14 days of BQT as a second-line therapy. We retrospectively analyzed the annual H. pylori eradication rates, demographic factors and adverse events. Results: The overall eradication rates by intention-to-treat (ITT) and per-protocol (PP) analyses were 80.7% (519/643) and 93.3% (519/556), respectively. By PP analysis, the eradication rates for 2008–2011, 2012–2015, and 2016–2019 were 93.3%, 91.0%, and 96.4%, respectively (p = 0.145). There were no significant differences between the 7-day group and the 10–14-day group in both the ITT (79.7% vs. 86.0%, p = 0.148) and the PP analyses (92.7% vs. 96.6%, p = 0.187). A multivariate analysis showed that current smoking was associated with eradication failure. Eighty-nine subjects (16.0%) suffered adverse events, mainly gastrointestinal symptoms, but only six cases were severe. Conclusions: BQT as a second-line therapy is an effective treatment for H. pylori. Treatment for 10–14 days showed a higher eradication rate compared with a 7-day regimen, but not significantly.

CURRENT DEVELOPMENT OF HELICOBACTER PYLORI ERADICATION PROTOCOLS

Helicobacter pylori is one of the most common commensal microorganisms in the human body, colonizing up to 60% of the inhabitants on all continents. Some H. pylori strains have acquired virulent properties and their presence can significantly complicate the course of type B atrophic gastritis, gastric ulcer and duodenal ulcer, as well as gastric malignant diseases. In such situations, eradication therapy seems to be pathogenetically justified. In 1996, there were proposed the International Recommendations for standard first-line 7–10-day course triple eradication therapy, including a proton pump inhibitor (PPI), amoxicillin and clarithromycin. Until the beginning of the XXIth century, the International Recommendations has been actively and highly efficiently (up to 90%) used everywhere, but later reports started to emerge regarding a catastrophic decrease in therapeutic outcome (up to 60%). Later, it turned out that the effectiveness of the three-component (triple) therapy directly correlates with the resistance to clarithromycin substantially increased in recent decades, which necessitated generation of new schemes for H. pylori elimination. The results of various schemes for H. pylori eradication were analyzed, including variants of modified triple therapy associated with the inclusion of new drugs or prolonged duration of the therapeutic protocol. In particular, it was proposed to replace amoxicillin with metronidazole. However, further studies have shown that the combination of clarithromycin with amoxicillin seems to be preferable due to the high level of H. pylori resistance to metronidazole recorded in many countries. Attempts to use probiotics in parallel, particularly cultures of various Lactobacillus species, were analyzed, which increases the level of eradication during standard triple therapy from 61.5% to 81.6%, and significantly reduces the severity of side effects. It has been shown that a promising approach to increase the effectiveness of 7-day first-line therapy schemes with clarithromycin is to use modern effective PPIs (for example, esomeprazole or rabeprazole). The scheme of modified sequential therapy with the replacement of clarithromycin with tetracycline or levofloxacin, which has shown high efficiency has been considered. A variant of standard triple therapy modified into quadrotherapy by adding metronidazole or tinidazole was analyzed. It has been shown that the sequential therapy scheme is ineffective for eradication of multidrug-resistant strains. Ideally, the treatment of bacterial infections should be based on endoscopic sampling of gastric mucosa biopsies, followed by microbiological determination of in vitro antibacterial drug sensitivity in bacterial isolates.

Eradication Rates of Clarithromycin Triple Therapy in Korea: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

Background/Aims: Standard triple therapy, including a proton pump inhibitor, clarithromycin, and amoxicillin, has been recommended as the first-line for <i>Helicobacter pylori</i> infection. However, the eradication rate of standard triple therapy has declined over the past years because of the increasing resistance to clarithromycin in Korea. We analyzed the eradication rates and the 10-year change in the eradication rates in Korea.Methods: PubMed, EMBASE, the Cochrane Library, and KoreaMed were searched for studies published between January 2007 and June 2018. The pooled eradication rates and their 95% CIs were estimated using a random-effect logistic regression model.Results: Twenty-six randomized controlled studies on standard triple therapy conducted in Korea were selected. The intention-to-treat (ITT) and per protocol analyses showed pooled eradication rates of standard triple therapy of 71.6% (95% CI, 69.9~73.3%) and 79.6% (95% CI, 76.6~82.2%), respectively. The eradication rate decreased with time. The ITT analysis showed that the 14-day therapy (78.1% [95% CI, 75.2~80.7%]) had significantly higher eradication rates than the 7-day therapy (70.0% [95% CI, 68.5~71.4%]) (<i>P</i><0.01).Conclusions: These results suggest that the eradication rate of standard triple therapy, as the first-line therapy, has shown an unacceptable decrease. The eradication rate increased when the duration of therapy was increased to 14 days, but it was not satisfactory. Therefore, other treatment regimens or therapies based on susceptibility tests should be considered for the first-line therapy.