Serum Level of Helicobacter pylori Antibody in Stroke Patients

Background and Objective: Stroke is the third most common cause of death in developed countries and the most common disabling neurological disease. There are several risk factors for stroke. Regarding this, the present study was conducted to investigate the effect of Helicobacter pylori antibody on the incidence of stroke. Materials and Methods: This case-control study was conducted on 50 patients (i.e., case group) with stroke admitted to Sina Teaching Hospital of Hamadan, Iran, using convenience sampling method. This group was compared with 50 healthy controls in terms of the serum level of Helicobacter pylori antibody. The data were analyzed using SPSS software (version 21) using proper statistical tests at 95% confidence interval. Results: The mean serum levels of Helicobacter pylori antibody in the case and control groups were 25.93±44.03 and 35.36±41.25 Uarb/ml, respectively (P=0.108). In addition, the serum levels of this antibody were obtained as 20.78 and 35.84 (P=0.055) in the females and 31.51 and 34.31 (P=0.501) in the males of the control and case groups, respectively. The Spearman correlation coefficient revealed a positive but insignificant relationship between age and serum antibody level of Helicobacter pylori in both groups (r=0.150; P=0.13). Conclusion: As the findings indicated, the stroke patients had a lower serum level of Helicobacter pylori antibody, compared to the healthy non-stroke patients; however, this difference was not statistically significant.