Gastric granulomas and Helicobacter pylori: An incidental relationship

Aims: Studies investigating the relationship between granulomatous gastritis (GG) and Helicobacter pylori infection have been largely inconclusive. This study was designed to determine whether the analysis of a very large number of patients would provide clearer answers evaluate the association between H. pylori infection and gastric granulomas. Methods: We used a large national database of clinicopathological data to extract 1,673,086 patients who underwent esophagogastroduodenoscopy with gastric biopsies between 2008 and 2020. In a case-control study, we evaluated the occurrence of H. pylori infection in patients with and without gastric granulomas. We also explored other clinical and histopathological associations. Results: H. pylori infection was present in 44 of 496 (8.9%) patients with gastric granulomas, compared to 158,949 (9.5%) in the control group (OR = 0.93, 95% CI = 0.68-1.26). Of the 129 patients with gastric granulomas, 50 had documented inflammatory bowel disease. Conclusions: The results of this study show that the prevalence of H. pylori infection in patients with gastric granulomas is essentially identical to that of controls with no evidence of granulomas or granulomatous disease. When patients with and without a plausible-known association for gastric granulomas were analyzed separately, the prevalence of H. pylori infection remained remarkably similar in GG patients and controls. Considering the very large numbers of patients with gastric biopsies analyzed in this study, we submit that there is no basis for suggesting that H. pylori is etiologically related to GG.

Automated summary

Studies investigating the relationship between granulomatous gastritis (GG) and Helicobacter pylori infection have been inconclusive. This study found that the prevalence of H. pylori infection in patients with gastric granulomas is essentially identical to that of controls, suggesting no causal relationship between H. pylori and GG.