Comparison of Two Novel First-line Anti-Helicobacter Pylori Therapy: A Prospective Randomized Trial

The Asian-Pacific Consensus Report has recommended that proton pump inhibitor (PPI)-clarithromycin-amoxicillin or metronidazole treatment for 7 to14 days is the first choice treatment for H pylori infection. As a general rule for the treatment of other infectious diseases, clinicians should prescribe therapeutic regimens that have a per-protocol eradication rate ≥ 90% for anti-H pylori therapy. However, the eradication rate of the standard triple therapy has generally declined to unacceptable levels (i.e., 80% or less) recently.[3-9] The reasons for this fall in efficacy with time may relate to the increasing incidence of clarithromycin-resistant strains of H. pylori. The main reasons for eradication failure for H pylori infection include antibiotic resistance, poor compliance and rapid metabolism of PPI. Clarithromycin resistance is the major cause of eradication failure for stand triple therapy. The rate of clarithromycin-resistant strains ranged from 49% (Spain) to 1% (Netherland) worldwide. Standard triple therapies should be abandoned in the areas with clarithromycin resistance ≥ 20% because the per-protocol eradication rates of standard therapies are often less than 85% and the intention-to-treat eradication rates are usually less than 80%. 7-10 day non-bismuth containing quadruple therapy (Concomitant therapy) had been successful in the presence of clarithromycin resistance. Another novel treatment with 14-day high dose PPI and amoxicilin dual therapy could also attained >90 eradication rate in some studies. This novel treatment is simple and involved only two drugs and the most important of all is that amoxicillin resistance is still 0% in Taiwan. High dose PPI has been used in several studies for H. pylori eradication in order to increase the intra-gastric PH for optimal eradication So far, there is still unclear which one is the best first-line H. pylori eradication regimen with highest eradication rate and least adverse effects. We therefore design a randomized controlled trial to simultaneously assess the efficacy novel 14-day high dose dual therapy by comparing to the 7-day non-bismuth containing quadruple therapy in Taiwan and to investigate the host and bacterial factors predicting the treatment outcomes of eradication therapies.