THE ASSESSMENT OF FIRST ANTIBODY PRODUCED AGAINST HELICOBACTER PYLORI

The clinical significance of high levels of antibody against Helicobacter pylori is still unclear. Our aim is to could predict the presence of gastroduodenal desease by serum antibody levels. Methods. Serum IgM antibodies against Helicobacter pylori were measured by ELISA. The wavelength of measurement absorbance was 450nm.Antibody index of each sample was calculated by dividing the optical density (OD) value of each sample by cutoff value. For cutoff value, IgG and IgA was: negative result ? 0,8: positive result ?1,2: fals result 0,9-1,1.Results. This study was performed in 241 subjects with gastric symptoms, including 95 (39.5%) females and 146 (60.5%) males with a mean age 47.1 (± 16.1) years and a range of 17 to 77 years. Examination for anti H. pylori IgM, showed that 151 (62.7%) cases were positive whereas 44 (18.3%) subjects were negative. 46 (19.1%) of tests resulted cut-off or suspicious.Positive were 65 (68.4%) of females and 101 (71.6%) of males without a significant difference between them (p=0.8). Here is no significant difference of IgM positivity rate by age group (p=0.4). Also, no trend of IgM positivity was found with increasing age (p=0.09).Conclusions: This study shows that determining the absorbance index of IgM antibodies to Helicobacter pylori could be used to assess the severity of infection.There is a reliable connection between IgM level and Helicobacter pulori infection(p=0.01).