Clinical behavior altered in about one-third of patients. The most frequent complication was a change to stricturing pattern. Disease location, current smoker, immunosuppressive therapy use, hospitalization, and abdominal surgery were factors associated with an unfavorable clinical evolution.

Since upper gastrointestinal endoscopy is part of the functional dyspepsia investigation and serology for anti-CagA antibody is not available in daily clinical practice, by biopsying gastric mucosa we would only be able to selectively apply H. pylori eradication therapy for those with histology that best correlate with virulent infecting strains (moderate or severe gastritis)--around (1/4) of our study patients with dyspepsia.

No abstract