Infection Linked to Ulcers and Morning Sickness

      NEW YORK, Oct 16 (UPI) -- Heliocobactor pylori, the microbe that causes ulcers, may also cause many cases of morning sickness in pregnant women.

      The study''s investigators went so far as to say eliminating the infection with antibiotic therapy could mean "an end to morning sickness for most women."

      Independent experts told United Press International they found the results interesting, but are not yet convinced by the 89-patient study.

      Dr. Nilda Santiago and her colleagues from Ponce School of Medicine in Puerto Rico report they used a blood test to detect h.pylori infection in 45 pregnant women who had severe morning sickness and compared those results to blood tests from 44 pregnant women who had no morning sickness.

      "We found h.pylori in 83 percent of the women with morning sickness," she said in an interview with UPI.

      In contrast, only 7 percent of the women who did not experience morning sickness were positive for h.pylori, she said, noting that both groups were 16 weeks into their pregnancies, and were matched for age and number of pregnancies.

      Santiago presented her group''s findings at the American College of Gastroenterology''s annual meeting, in New York.

      Dr. Alvaro Reymunde, associate professor of medicine at Ponce Medical School, said that he and Santiago now plan to test this theory in a prospective study.

      "We plan to test women who are not pregnant but planning a pregnancy for h.pylori," he said. "If they are positive, we will treat the h.pylori with antibiotics before the women become pregnant." Antibiotic treatment during pregnancy could harm the fetus.

      So why some women experience morning sickness during one pregnancy but not during other pregnancies, even without treatment for h.pylori infection?

      Reymunde replied, "There are two possible explanations: she could have received antibiotic therapy for another diagnosed infection, such as a sinus infection, so then the h.pylori is eradicated. Or, our study found that 17 percent of women with morning sickness didn''t have h.pylori, so she could be in this group."

      Dr. Philip O. Katz, chief of gastroenterology at Graduate Hospital, Philadelphia, said the study by Santiago is "provocative" but he said he has strong reservations about the findings.

      For example, he said that the prevalence of h.pylori is the control group is "surprisingly low, while the prevalence in the symptomatic group is surprisingly high." On average, he explained, about 20 to 40 percent of healthy people are carrying silent h.pylori infections, meaning they have no symptoms.

      "Finding a prevalence of just 7 percent is surprising," he said.

      Katz added that observational studies have linked h.pylori infection to many other conditions but that linkage always failed to hold up under closer scrutiny.

      "For example, there was a lot of excitement about a possible link with cardiovascular disease, but when that was studied in a prospective fashion, no link was found," he told UPI.

      Katz also said that he does not support efforts to "go around testing asymptomatic people for h.pylori and then using antibiotics to eradicate an infection that is quiescent," or apparently inactive.

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