NEW YORK, Aug 20 (Reuters) -- Curing peptic ulcer disease can improve life expectancy, especially for younger patients and those who have complicated ulcer disease, according to a study in the August issue of the American Journal of Gastroenterology.
Efforts to prevent infection with the organism Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) -- a bacteria that causes ulcers in the stomach and duodenum -- would improve life expectancy in the general population, but would especially benefit groups with high rates of gastric cancer or peptic ulcer disease, report Drs. John M. Inadomi and Amnon Sonnenberg, of the Veterans Administration Medical Center and the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque.
H. pylori infection is a major contributor to peptic ulcer disease and gastric cancer. Some experts have recommended a large-scale public health effort to eradicate H. pylori, and researchers are working on a vaccine against it.
Inadomi and Sonnenberg used a mathematical model that calculates the effect of a medical condition on the life expectancy of an individual.
Cure of active peptic ulcer disease increased life expectancy by 2.3 years in people ages 40 to 44 years. But the researchers found that the impact of cure decreased with advancing age: for patients ages 70 to 74 years, life expectancy increased by only 121 days.
When peptic ulcer disease is complicated by hemorrhage, perforation or obstruction, the effect of a cure is more substantial. Increases in life expectancy ranged from 6.3 years for older patients to 26.1 years for younger patients.
The researchers also calculated that preventing H. pylori infection could increase life expectancy by up to 190 days in those ages 40 to 44 years.
Inadomi and Sonnenberg designed their analysis to help physicians decide how to treat a patient with peptic ulcer disease.
The statistical method used in the current study "provid(es) the clinician with a simple tool to predict the outcome of ulcer disease in any given patient," the researchers write.
SOURCE: American Journal of Gastroenterology 1998;93:1286-1290.
