Objective To systematically review the relationship between helicobacter pyloric (HP) infection and ischemia stroke. Methods We searched MEDLINE, BIOSIS, VIP, and China Full Text Journal databases to identify the studies that studied the relationship between HP infection and ischemia stroke. All the studies were strictly screened according to the inclusion criteria, and meta-analyses were performed for the included studies using RevMan 4.2 software.Results Eleven case-control studies involving 1 530 patients with ischemia stroke and 1 451 health controls were included. The results of meta-analyses showed that there was a significant difference in the infection ratio of HP between the patients with ischemia stroke and health controls (OR=1.77, 95%CI 1.38 to 2.28, Plt;0.0001), but this difference was not been found after adjusting some related risk factors (1.22, 95%CI 0.93 to 1.59, P=0.15). The results of subgroup meta-analyses showed these differences were only found in the LAA (large-artery atherosclerosis) subgroup (OR=3.65, 95%CI 2.58 to 5.17) and the SAA (small-artery atherosclerosis) subgroup (OR=1.74, 95%CI 1.30 to 2.34), but was not found in the CE (cardiogenic cerebral embolism) subgroup (OR=1.08, 95%CI 0.58 to 2.02). Conclusion HP infection is associated with ischemia stroke, but the relationships between HP infection and the subtypes of ischemia stroke are different. The association between HP and LAA is ber than that between HP and the other subtypes. More evidence is needed to prove whether Helicobacter pyloric infection is an independent risk factor of ischemia stroke.
