Mete Gürsoy, Abdulkadir Faruk Hökenek, Vedat Bakuy, Egemen Duygu, Murat Şener

Keywords: Cytotoxine associated gene A protein, Helicobacter pylori; flow-mediated dilatation

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: Cytotoxin associated gene (Cag) A+ Helicobacter pylori (HP) is the most virulent HP strain, and its association with endothelial dysfunction remains unclear. Thus we investigated the effects of CagA+ HP on endothelial dependent dilatation and its relationship with C-reactive protein (CRP) in normotensive subjects. METHODS: Sixty individuals with CagA+ HP infection were compared with 40 individuals with CagA(-) HP infection and 50 individuals with no infection in terms of flow-mediated dilatation (FMD), non-endothelium-dependent dilatation (NED) and CRP.RESULTS: In the CagA+ subjects the mean percentage of FMD was 6.3±2.7, which was significantly lower than that of the CagA- subjects (9.8±3.3, p