Effect of H pylori infection and its eradication on hyperammo-nemia and hepatic encephalopathy in cirrhotic patients

Table 1 Clinical characteristics of H pylori-positive and -negative patients

	H pylori (+)	H pylori (-)	P value
Sex (male/female)	196/81	141/39	0.045
Age (yr)	57.6 ± 12.7	56.9 ± 13.4	0.604
Child-Pugh class
A/B/C	67/124/86	55/77/48	0.309
Upper gastrointestinal	155	95	0.263
hemorrhage
Hepatorenal syndrome	19	11	0.448
Ascites	197	136	0.208

Table 2 Effect of H pylori infection on blood ammonia concentration and HE

H pylori infection	n	Ammonia concentration (&mgr;mol/L)	HE rate
H pylori (–)	180	53.8 ± 51.4bd	55 (30.6%)bd
H pylori (+)	277	78.4 ± 63.6	162 (58.5%)
Eradicated	126	53.5 ± 37.7bd	43 (34.1%)bd
Failed to eradicate	11	97.5 ± 81.0	6 (54.5%)

^bP < 0.01, vs failed to eradicate (+) group;

^dP < 0.01, vs H pylori (+) group.

Table 3 Relationship between HE and H pylori infection and blood ammonia

	HE (n = 217)	SHE (n = 55)	Cirrhotic (n = 62)	P value	χ2
H pylori infection	74.4%	69.1%	53.2%	< 0.01	9.999
Child–Pugh class				< 0.01	29.154
A/B/C	27/100/90	9/30/16	22/33/7
Ammonia	94.5 ± 75.6b	59.9 ± 49.2	47.3 ± 33.5
concentration (&mgr;mol/L)

^bP < 0.01, vs SHE group (t = 4.117); vs cirrhotic (t = 1.601).

Table 4 Risk factors for HE analyzed by logistic multiple regression

	P value	OR value	95% CI
Sex	0.341	0.751	0.416-1.354
Age	0.881	0.959	0.555-1.657
Etiology	0.125	1.564	0.883-2.769
H pylori infection	0.007	2.113	1.222-3.654
Blood ammonia level	0.000	4.701	2.773-7.970
Child-Pugh class	0.000	3.416	1.823-6.398
Ascites	0.277	1.395	0.765-2.541
Hemorrhage	0.048	1.798	1.004-3.218
Infections	0.934	1.027	0.546-1.932
Electrolyte disturbance	0.045	1.857	1.015-3.398
Leukocyte count	0.840	1.056	0.625-1.782
Hemoglobin	0.592	1.192	0.626-2.270
Platelet count	0.430	1.279	0.694-2.356
Creatinine	0.489	0.768	0.364-1.621
Blood urea nitrogen	0.041	1.854	1.025-3.353