Introduction: Helicobacter pylori is the most common bacterial infection in the world. Infection with this bacterium occurs during the first 5 years of life. The present study was conducted with the aim of investigating the frequency of Helicobacter pylori infection in children and the types of histopathological changes related to it in endoscopic gastric biopsy samples of children.
Methods: In this cross-sectional-descriptive study, the prevalence of Helicobacter pylori and histopathological findings of 169 children with it were examined in the gastric endoscopic biopsy samples that were sent to the pathology department of Shahid Motahari Hospital in Urmia during March 2019 to March 2022. This study was approved by Research Ethics committee of Urmia University of Medical Science, Urmia, Iran (code: IR.UMSU.REC.1400.227).
Results: Out of 571 examined patients, 169 children (29.5%) were infected with Helicobacter pylori, the most common histopathological lesion was chronic gastritis. 40.3% of patients had active chronic inflammation as a result of gastric biopsy. No significant relationship was found between Helicobacter pylori and children's gender (P=0.29), but a significant relationship was observed between Helicobacter pylori results and children's age (P=0.04). A significant relationship was also observed between Helicobacter pylori infection and the severity of chronic gastritis (P=0.0001).
Conclusions: Considering that the inflammatory histopathological changes of the stomach are seen in all children with Helicobacter pylori infection and in more than 40% of cases this inflammation is of an active type, it is necessary to pay special attention to the early diagnosis and treatment of this infection in children.