Source: Crit Care Med  |  Posted 9 years ago

[]Helicobacter pylori[] infection may be associated with low vitamin B levels in healthy adults, say Israeli researchers.

A causal relationship between the "higher prevalence of infection among subjects with serum vitamin B levels that are within the lower end of the normal range" is suggested by investigators at the Hadasseh Hebrew University Hospital Jerusalem, Israel.

In this study of 133 adults, the researchers examined whether serological evidence of infection correlated with serum vitamin B levels in non-vitamin B deficient healthy adults.

All the subjects, who presented to a community based primary care clinic, were checked against exclusion criteria such as history of eradication or antacid use, liver disease and inflammatory bowel disease. Exclusion criteria included previous gastrointestinal surgery, a vegetarian diet or multivitamin supplementation.

Blood samples were taken for a complete blood count, serum vitamin B, gastrin, folic acid and IgG antibodies. Patients in the deficient range, vitamin B

Ninety-six of the subject group, 72.2%, were found to be seropositive for IgG antibodies (HP+). There was no difference between the age of HP(+) subjects and that of seronegative subjects (HP-); 52.8