Brief Reports
Copyright ©2005 Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Nov 14, 2005; 11(42): 6644-6649
Published online Nov 14, 2005. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v11.i42.6644
Herpes simplex virus type 1 in peptic ulcer disease: An inverse association with Helicobacter pylori
Klisthenis Tsamakidis, Efstathia Panotopoulou, Dimitrios Dimitroulopoulos, Dimitrios Xinopoulos, Maria Christodoulou, Alexandra Papadokostopoulou, Ioannis Karagiannis, Elias Kouroumalis, Emmanuel Paraskevas
Klisthenis Tsamakidis, Dimitrios Dimitroulopoulos, Dimitrios Xinopoulos, Alexandra Papadokostopoulou, Ioannis Karagiannis, Emmanuel Paraskevas, Department of Gastroenterology, “Agios Savvas” Anticancer Hospital, Athens, Greece
Efstathia Panotopoulou, Maria Christodoulou, Papanicolaou Research Center of Oncology and Experiment Surgery, Athens, Greece
Elias Kouroumalis, Department of Gastroenterology, University Hospital, Heraklion, Crete, Greece
Author contributions: All authors contributed equally to the work.
Correspondence to: Dr D Dimitroulopoulos, Department of Gastroenterology, “Agios Savvas” Hospital, Parnasou 35, GR-152 34 Athens, Greece. dimdim@otenet.gr
Telephone: +30-210-6892460 Fax: +30-210-6420146
Received: April 14, 2005
Revised: May 9, 2005
Accepted: May 12, 2005
Published online: November 14, 2005
Abstract

AIM: To assess the frequency of herpes simplex virus type I in upper gastrointestinal tract ulcers and normal mucosa with the modern and better assays and also with a larger number of well characterized patients and controls and its relationship to Helicobacter pylori(H pylori).

METHODS: Biopsy specimens from 90 patients (34 with gastric ulcer of the prepyloric area and 56 with duodenal ulcer) were evaluated. Biopsies from 50 patients with endoscopically healthy mucosa were considered as the control group. The method used to identify herpes simplex virus-1 (HSV-1) was polymerase chain reaction. H pylori was detected by the CLO-test and by histological method.

RESULTS: Herpes simplex virus-1 was detected in 28 of 90 patients with peptic ulcer (31%) [11 of 34 patients with gastric ulcer (32.4%) and 17 of 56 with duodenal ulcer (30.4%)] exclusively close to the ulcerous lesion. All control group samples were negative for HSV-1. The likelihood of H pylori negativity among peptic ulcer patients was significantly higher in HSV-1 positive cases than in HSV-1 negative cases (P = 0.009). Gastric ulcer patients with HSV-1 positivity were strongly associated with an increased possibility of Helicobacter pylori negativity compared to duodenal ulcer patients (P = 0.010).

CONCLUSION: HSV-1 is frequent in upper gastro-intestinal tract ulcers but not in normal gastric and duodenal mucosa. There is an inverse association between HSV-1 and H pylori infection.

Keywords: HSV-1; Herpes simplex virus type 1; Peptic ulcer; Duodenal ulcer; Gastric ulcer; PCR; Polymerase chain reaction; H pylori; Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs