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Rebecca Voelker
JAMA contributor

JAMA. 1998;279:1771.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

Virulence of Helicobacter pylori appears to be a key factor in the ulcer-causing bacteria's association with heart disease.

In a new study, Italian researchers have described 88 patients with ischemic heart disease and a control group of 88 patients matched by body mass index and socioeconomic levels. Almost two thirds, or 62%, of the people with heart disease also were infected with H pylori. However, the infection rate was 40% among people in the control group.

But the researchers found that heart disease affected 43% of study participants who had a particularly virulent H pylori strain that contained a gene called CagA. In comparison, only 17% of those infected with a strain lacking the gene had heart disease. "The findings strongly suggest that the association between H pylori and heart disease is related to the strength of this bacteria," said the study's lead author, Vincenzo Pasceri, . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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