查看文章

Objectives

Pre-eclampsia (PE) is characterized by an excess of inflammation and endothelial dysfunction. Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) causes chronic inflammatory changes and endothelial damage. We investigated the prevalence of seropositivity for IgG against H. pylori and cytotoxin-associated antigen A (CagA) in PE patients and the presence of H. pylori DNA in their placentas.

Methods

We tested 47 pregnant women with PE and 47 with uneventful pregnancies for serum antibodies against H. pylori (enzyme immunoassays) and CagA protein (immunoblot assays). In 20 of them (10 normal and 10 PE) we assessed the presence, in the placenta, of H. pylori DNA by means of nested polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI), adjusted for parity, were calculated using logistic regression analysis to assess the risk of PE associated with H. pylori infection.

Results …