Serological Diagnosis of Helicobacter pylori Infection in Patients With a Polycystic Ovary Syndrome

Abstract

Background: Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) is the most common endocrine disorder in 4% -6% of women in the reproductive age and is a common cause of infertility. Even though the number of investigations is scarce, studies show that Helicobacter pylori infection may influence reproduction. Objectives: The purpose of this study was to determine and compare the levels of H. pylori specific antibodies IgA, IgG and anti-CagA at both PCOS and non-PCOS women with their spouses using the serological test. Patients and Methods:In this cross-sectional study, 127 women with their spouses (age range, 30 -60 years) were selected. These patient were referred to infertility center of Shariati Hospital in Tehran, Iran, with a diagnostic criteria of PCOS based on Androgen Excess Society (AES). The specific antibodies of IgA, IgG and anti-CagA were measured using the commercial Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) kit. Results: The positive titers of H. pylori antibodies IgA, IgG and anti-CagA in the PCOS group were 45 (35%), 79 (62%) and 77 (60.5%), respectively, while in non-PCOS group were 38 (30%), 76 (60%) and 50 (39.5%), respectively. The sera positive for IgA, IgG and anti-CagA antibodies in spouses of the non-PCOS group were 38 (30%), 84 (66%) and 79 (62%) respectively, but in spouses of the PCOS group were 51 (40%), 83 (66%) and 48 (38%), respectively. The results showed that H. pylori infection probably did not affect infertility or reproduction. Conclusions:Findings of this study demonstrate no significant difference between levels of H. pylori specific antibodies of IgA, IgG, anti-CagA and the presence of PCOS disorders, and also indicate that serologic testing is a sensitive method for the detection of H. pylori antibodies. The high prevalence of H. pylori positive antibody levels in both PCOS and non-PCOS patients can be probably associated with the high frequency of H. pylori infection.

Helicobacter pylori infection and polycystic ovary syndrome in adolescent and young adult patients

“…study. Similarly to our study, another study involving 254 individuals (127 with PCOS and 127 without PCOS) did not find significantly higher positive titers of antibodies to H. pylori including IgA, IgG and CagA in the PCOS group compared with control group . In that study, higher rates of autoantibodies to H. pylori including IgA, IgG, CagA were seen in both patients with PCOS and those without PCOS (35%, 62%, 60.5%; 30%, 60%, 39.5%; P > 0.05).…”

“…32 It is possible that non-PCOS AYA patients with H. pylori infection may develop PCOS in the future, similarly to the time required for carcinogenesis to occur in H. pylori patients with chronic gastritis and peptic ulcer. 33 34 In that study, higher rates of autoantibodies to H. pylori including IgA, IgG, CagA were seen in both patients with PCOS and those without PCOS (35%, 62%, 60.5%; 30%, 60%, 39.5%; P > 0.05). Therefore, given that the subjects in that study (and therefore that region) seem to have a high prevalence of H. pylori infection, more studies involving a large number of participants are needed to clarify a possible link between H. pylori infection and PCOS.…”

The Association between Infertility and Helicobacter pylori Infection: a Meta-Analysis of Case-control Studies

“…A total of 1,902 participants were enrolled, including 626 patients and 1,276 controls. In total, 503 women diagnosed with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) were cases in three articles [15][16][17]; other women (n = 124) had no PCOS. The design of all included studies was a case-control study.…”

“…All the included studies detected H. pylori IgG antibodies in serum to diagnose H. pylori infection. Three articles found no association between H. pylori and infertility via serologic examination [16][17][18]; however, the other studies found that H. pylori was a risk factor for infertility [15,17,19]. Table 2 shows the level of evidence provided according to the NOS criteria.…”

“…Outcome measure Data analysis F. Sohrabvand et al [16], AK Kiani et al [17], and SG Lou et al [18] found that there was no significant difference in H. pylori IgG antibodies between the two groups, while the others reported statistically significant findings [15,[19][20][21]. In our meta-analysis, 344/626 pa-tients in the infertility group were positive for H. pylori IgG antibodies compared to the control group (495/ 1,276).…”