Association between Helicobacter pylori and Iron Deficiency Anemia in Preschool Children

Abo El-Naga, Amr Megahed; Abd El-laatef, Amal Mohamed; Khalifa, Naglaa Ali; Awad, Mohamed El-Tabey

doi:10.21608/ejhm.2020.116762

Association between Helicobacter pylori and Iron Deficiency Anemia in Preschool Children

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

10.21608/ejhm.2020.116762

Abstract

Background: Helicobacter pylori is a gram-negative helical microaerophilic flagellated bacterium contained by a majority of the world's population in the sterile gastric mucosa. It is considered as a significant pediatric gastroenterology pathogen that is acquired in early infancy.
Objective: This study aimed to detect Helicobacter pylori infection in preschool children with iron deficiency anemia and compare them to a control healthy group.

Patients and Methods: The present study was a single blinded randomized controlled interventional trail that was conducted in Pediatric and Clinical Pathology Departments, Zagazig University Children Hospital during the period from August 2017 to May 2018. 44 patients that were randomly divided into 2 groups. Group 1 included 22 diagnosed as iron deficiency anemia with Hb less than 11g/d. Group 2 included 22 apparently healthy children.
Results: In the present study, we used H. pylori stool Ab test to detect Helicobacter pylori infection in the children of the study and it is found that there was increased incidence of H. pylori infection in group I (77.3% vs 4.5% in group II).
Conclusions: There was significant increased incidence of Helicobacter pylori infection in children with iron deficiency anemia and children with refractory iron deficiency anemia compared to healthy ones. This indicates that Helicobacter pylori may be one of the significant causes of iron deficiency anemia and refractory iron deficiency anemia.

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