Efficacy of sequential therapy in the treatment of Helicobacter pylori infection

Introduction: Infection by Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) is a global public health issue, for which the poor response to the conventional therapeutics using Triple Therapy (TT), expressed by the low rates of eradication of infection, raises the need to establish other treatment regimens that may be more effective, such as Sequential Therapy (ST). Objectives: Evaluate the efficiency of ST in the eradication of infection by H. pylori, as compared to TT. Methods: 68 patients between the ages of 18 and 76 were evaluated with dyspepsia, and were diagnosed for infection by H. pylori through biopsy (histology); they were divided equally in tw o groups and were treated for the first time by ST and TT, respectively; a month after treatment a biopsy (histology) and the 14CUrea Breath Test (PYtest) were performed. Pearson’s chi-square test was performed. Results: the average age was 41.5 years; with 74.0% women. For both treatment therapies, 21 patients (81%) biopsy (-), and 4 (16%) biopsy (+), were not statistically significant. Of the 50 patients treated in both therapies, 42 (84%) were negative for the 14C-Urea Breath Test and 8 (16%) were positive, these results were statistically significant (p = 0.0001). The presence of the disease, measured in sensitivity was 75.0%, and the healing, measured in specificity, had a value of 95.2%. Conclusions: Ten days of Sequential Therapy were not superior to fourteen days of Triple Therapy in patients treated for the first time.