Does Helicobacter pylori have a pathogenic role in bronchiectasis?

Aim: To investigate the presence of Helicobacterpylori (H. pylori) in bronchial biopsies of patients with bronchiectasis, by histochemical and immunochemical staining. Setting: 800-bed tertiary university hospital. Methods: Observational study. Patients: forty-six patients with bronchiectasis in a stable clinical condition and 8 control patients. Interventions: Serum samples determination of IgG levels for H. pylori by ELISA. Inmunostaining with an anti-H. pylori antibody (NCL-HPp, Novocastra) of bronchial mucosa obtained by fiberoptic bronchoscopy from both patients with bronchiectasis and controls. Results: Twenty-one out of 46 patients with bronchiectasis (46%) had positive serologies for H. pylori. We obtained 40 bronchial biopsies in patients with bronchiectasis and 8 bronchial biopsies in control patients. No evidence of H. pylori was obtained in the bronchial samples of both patients and controls. Conclusions: The results of our study could not demonstrate the presence of H. pylori in bronchial specimens from patients with bronchiectasis. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.