Helicobacter pylori related functional dyspepsia in a defined Malaysian population

The objective of the study was to determine the prevalence of H. pylori in functional dyspepsia among the three main races in Malaysia. Gastric antral biopsies from 233 (98 males, 135 females; age range: 17-75 years, mean age 39.5 years) patients attending the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) gastroenterology clinic were assessed for the presence of H. pylori by culture and histology. About a third of the cases (79 of 233 (34%); 34 males, 45 females; mean age 42.6 yrs) were positive for H. pylori. The presence of H. pylori was always associated with antral gastritis. Malay patients were least likely to be positive for H. pylori (10 of 88 (11.4%); 5 males, 5 females; mean age 35.7 yrs) compared to the Chinese (43 of 95 (45%); 19 males; 24 females; mean age 40.2 yrs) and Indian patients (23 of 41 (56%); 10 males, 13 females; mean age 48.1 yrs). We found that H. pylori were most common among Chinese followed by Indians. However, the relative risk for the Indians was 8.58 and 6.29 for the Chinese compared to Malays. We conclude that the prevalence of H. pylori in patients with functional dyspepsia differs considerably with respect to ethnic groups.