The influence of the eradication of Helicobacter pylori on gastric ghrelin, appetite, and body mass index in patients with peptic ulcer disease

What Was Tested

This clinical trial paper looks at Ghrelin.

Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection has been known to influence the gastric leptin and ghrelin secretion, for which the exact pathogenic role has not been documented yet.

This study was designed to investigate the influence of H. pylori eradication on plasma or gastric levels of ghrelin, body mass index (BMI), and resultant levels of appetite in patients with peptic ulcer disease.

Who Took Part

The abstract describes 10 patients taking part.

PubMed indexes the participants as adults, middle-aged adults and older adults, both men and women.

Twenty-two patients with H. pylori-associated active duodenal or gastric ulcer were treated with 7 weeks of antisecretory medication followed with 7 days of eradication regimen.

The plasma and tissue ghrelin levels, tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) mRNA, BMI, and appetite scale were checked before and after treatment.

How the Study Was Run

An additional endoscopic examination was conducted in 10 patients taking both ulcer treatment and H. pylori eradication.

What Was Measured

PubMed files the paper under topics including Anti-Bacterial Agents, Appetite, Body Mass Index, Duodenal Ulcer, Eating, Endoscopy, Gastrointestinal and Gastric Mucosa.

What This Means in Plain Language

This is a clinical trial of Ghrelin in 10 patients.

With fewer than 40 people, it is a small study, so it is better read as an early signal for further research than as a settled answer.

The abstract goes on to report its results in about 5 sentences; this page does not restate them, so read the paper for the findings and their limits.

The publication is from 2008 (Journal of gastroenterology and hepatology), a journal based in Australia.

More context: the Ghrelin compound page, all human trials.