H. pylori gastritis and symptoms

Sugano, 2015 Malfertheiner, 2017

All people infected with H. pylori develop active chronic gastritis, but there is an inconstant relationship between the presence of H. pylori gastritis and symptoms. Thus, gastritis is a pathological rather than a clinical diagnosis.

Unlike patients with peptic ulcer disease, only a minority of symptomatic people who have H. pylori gastritis without an ulcer (functional dyspepsia) have sustained relief of symptoms after H. pylori eradication therapy. This is because H. pylori may be causal in only a subset of patients with functional dyspepsia, and incidental in others (ie dyspepsia also commonly occurs in uninfected patients). However, H. pylori eradication is usually offered to these patients because it is more likely to improve symptoms than empirical acid suppression therapy, and it may decrease the risk of peptic ulcer disease and gastric cancer. For more information, see Functional dyspepsia.