A study depicted that Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection may be associated with the laryngopharyngeal reflux (LPR) symptoms aggravation by elevating their salivary pepsin concentration. Qing-Qing Zhang et al. aimed to investigate impact of H. pylori eradication therapy on salivary pepsin concentration in laryngopharyngeal reflux people infected with H. pylori.

Overall, 477 individuals with suspected LPR were recruited. Non-LPR and LPR patients with or without H. pylori infection were contrasted in terms of reflux symptom index, reflux finding score, salivary pepsin concentrations assessed utilizing enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, positive rates and disintegrations per minute values of H. pylori infection detected by 14C urea breath test. Patients who tested positive for H. pylori received H. pylori eradication treatment, whereas those who tested negative received proton pump inhibitors (PPI) therapy.

The scores of vocal fold edema (1.04 vs. 0.85), persistent cough (0.88 vs. 0.50), erythema or hyperemia (1.93 vs. 1.78), were greater in the LPR (+) H. pylori (+) subgroup when compared to the LPR (+) H. pylori (-) subgroup. In patients with LPR and non-LPR, the salivary pepsin concentrations in the H. pylori (+) subgroup were raised when compared to the H. pylori (-) subgroup, as shown in Table 1:

As contrasted to baseline (prior to therapy), salivary pepsin concentrations (44.35 ng/ml vs. 74.15 ng/ml), scores of persistent cough (0.35 vs. 0.84), hyperemia or erythema (1.50 vs. 1.83) reduced in LPR patients with H. pylori infection following H. pylori treatment. However, this was not the case for LPR patients without H. pylori infection treated with only PPI. Thus, H. pylori infection may contribute to the worsening of LPR patients' symptoms and signs, in part by raising the content of pepsin in their saliva.