Abstract
BACKGROUND: The risks of gastrointestinal disorders and cancer are higher in chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients than the general population. There are only a few published reports on the association of helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection, endoscopic findings, and histology in these patients. This study was designed to address these controversial topics among kidney transplant candidates as the first study in southern Iran. PATIENTS AND METHODS: In this cross-sectional study, patients undergoing renal transplantation in the largest center of southern Iran during 2016-2017 were evaluated for the frequency of H. pylori infection, endoscopic findings, and histology. Gastric endoscopic findings (normal, abnormal non-ulcerative, ulcerative) and histological findings of gastric biopsy (normal/non-significant, inflammation, premalignant lesions (PMLs), malignant lesions) were studied. RESULTS: In total, 293 patients underwent endoscopy for transplant work up. The mean age (SD) was 47.37 (13.14) years. The most common endoscopic finding was abnormal gastric lesions. Overall, 78.8% patients had abnormal gastric histologic findings, of which 6.1% had PMLs. There was no significant association between laboratory data of patients with H. pylori infection. Of these, 147 (50.2%) patients were positive and the others were H. Pylori negative. Positive H. pylori infection was significantly associated with gastric ulcerative lesions. Positive H. pylori infection was also strongly associated with inflammation (P<0.01), but not significantly associated with PMLs (P=0.99) in gastric histology. CONCLUSION: The present study showed that abnormal endoscopic and histologic findings as well as positive H. pylori infection were observed in a large number of kidney transplant candidates, so upper endoscopy with biopsy is an acceptable procedure for these patients. However, further studies are recommended to determine the relationship of H. pylori with abnormal endoscopic and histologic findings considering other confounding factors in kidney transplant candidates as well as the efficacy of H. pylori eradication therapy to improve these abnormal findings.