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A case of Helicobacter heilmannii-associated primary gastric mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue lymphoma achieving complete remission after eradication

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Abstract

A 46-year-old man underwent gastrointestinal endoscopy while visiting the hospital for a general physical check-up. Coarse mucosa in the antrum with superficial erosions was found by endoscopic gastrointestinal examination, but no atrophic changes were seen in the corpus. Histopathological examination of gastric biopsy specimens revealed mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue (MALT) lymphoma. Although Helicobacter pylori was not detected in our patient, H. heilmannii was identified histologically and by polymerase chain reaction analysis, resulting in the diagnosis of H. heilmannii-associated gastric MALT lymphoma. We successfully eradicated H. heilmannii and achieved complete remission of gastric MALT lymphoma by antibiotic therapy. H. heilmannii usually causes milder gastritis than H. pylori, but it has been more closely associated with MALT lymphoma. As such, when H. pylori infection is excluded in patients with gastric MALT lymphoma, physicians should next consider the possibility of H. heilmannii. Furthermore, our research suggests that eradication therapy is effective for treatment of localized H. heilmannii-associated gastric MALT lymphoma.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Trevor Ralph for his English editorial assistance.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Gastroenterology, Shinshu University School of Medicine, 3-1-1 Asahi, Matsumoto, 390-8621, Japan

    Takuma Okamura, Yugo Iwaya, Shuichi Yokosawa, Tomoaki Suga & Eiji Tanaka

  2. Endoscopic Examination Center, Shinshu University Hospital, Matsumoto, Japan

    Norikazu Arakura

  3. Department of Laboratory Medicine, Shinshu University Hospital, Matsumoto, Japan

    Takehisa Matsumoto & Naoko Ogiwara

  4. Department of Clinical Laboratory, Aizawa Hospital, Matsumoto, Japan

    Kayoko Higuchi

  5. Department of Biomedical Sciences, School of Health Sciences, Shinshu University School of Medicine, Matsumoto, Japan

    Hiroyoshi Ota

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  1. Takuma Okamura
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  2. Yugo Iwaya
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  3. Shuichi Yokosawa
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Correspondence to Yugo Iwaya.

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Okamura, T., Iwaya, Y., Yokosawa, S. et al. A case of Helicobacter heilmannii-associated primary gastric mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue lymphoma achieving complete remission after eradication. Clin J Gastroenterol 6, 38–45 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12328-012-0355-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12328-012-0355-9

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