Incidence of Helicobacter pylori in central serous chorioretinopathy: a case control study

Helicobacter pylori infection is one of the most common infections worldwide. Centralserous chorioretinopathy (CSCR) is a serous macular detachment that usually affectsyoung people. The aetiopathogenesis of the disease is still not completely understood.Recently, an interesting association has been observed between this disease and the H.pylori infection. This study was conducted to investigate a possible association betweenH. pylori infection and CSCR. A prospective study was performed and we evaluated atotal of 54 CSCR patients (48 males and 6 females, median age 35.7 years), and a controlgroup of 59 patients (25 women, 34 males; mean age 42.6±11 years) who referred togastroenterology department of Imam Hospital, Ahvaz Jundishapur University ofMedical Sciences, were studied. Central serous chorioretinopathy was diagnosed on thebasis of findings in ophthalmic examinations and confirmed by fluorescein angiogram.All patients underwent a 13C-urea breath test (UBT) and serum IgG anti-bodies to H.pylori by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay technique to detect H. pylori infection.Patients were defined as H. pylori infected if both tests were positive. The mean durationof symptoms before diagnosis was 10.5±4.5 days. Overall no statistically significantdifference was found between left and right eyes, bilaterally was in 5 patients (9.2%).The incidence of H. pylori infection was 68.5% in CSCR patients and 65% in controlsubjects (p=0.64). These results indicate that the prevalence of H. pylori infection is nothigher in patients with CSCR than in controls. Further large studies will be required todetermine the role of H. pylori infection in patients with CSCR.