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| |  No Correlation Between H. Pylori And Heart Disease MONTREAL, QC -- April 13, 1998 -- Previous claims of a substantial link between infection with Helicobacter pylori and certain risk factors for coronary heart disease were due to chance or the preferential publication of positive results, according to a recent meta-analysis published in the April 10 issue of British Medical Journal. Previously-published epidemiological studies have suggested a weakly positive association between coronary heart disease and chronic infection with H. pylori. A number of researchers have also claimed to have found a strong link between H. pylori infection and an increase in vascular risk factors, such as plasma fibrinogen concentrations. The meta-analysis looked at the results of 18 epidemiological studies, involving a total of 10,000 patients, that measured serum antibody titres to H. pylori and risk factors for coronary heart disease. The researchers report that only small absolute differences in body mass index, blood pressure, or hematological risk factors were found between subjects who were seropositive to H. pylori and those who were seronegative. In those who were seropositive body mass index was slightly higher and concentrations of high density lipoprotein cholesterol were slightly lower. None of the other differences were highly significant. "We found no significant correlations between infection with H. pylori and blood pressure, white cell count, or concentrations of total cholesterol, fibrinogen, triglycerides, or C reactive protein," the authors wrote. "The differences in body mass index and high density lipoprotein cholesterol are both highly significant but…these variables are unlikely to be of much relevance to any association between infection with H. pylori and coronary heart disease," they added. The authors attribute the increases in plasma viscosity and blood glucose seen in these studies as being only marginally significant and "largely or wholly due to chance or publication bias. More importantly, even if they are real, the absolute differences are too small to have a substantial effect on any epidemiological association between chronic infection and coronary heart disease." The clinical implication is that if there is any relation between chronic H. pylori infection and coronary heart disease, it is not likely to be dependent on the risk factors described here.
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