FREQUENCIES OF THE ABO BLOOD GROUP SYSTEM AND ITS RELATIONSHIP WITH Helicobacter pylori INFECTION AMONG PATIENTS WITH GASTROINTESTINAL COMPLAINTS IN ASELLA TEACHING AND REFERRAL HOSPITAL, ARS

Helicobacter pylori are a small, spiral-shaped bacterium that lives on the surface of the stomach and duodenum. H. pylorus is closely associated with onset of diseases such as gastric ulcers, duodenal ulcers, gastritis and gastric cancers. The aim of this study was to determine the frequencies of ABO blood group system and its relationship with H. pylori infection among patients with gastrointestinal complaints at the Asella Teaching and Referral Hospital. A total of 422 patients of whom, (233 males and 189 females), ranging from 18 to 79 years in age took part in this study. Stool samples were taken from all patients for detection of H. pylori antigen by chromatography immunoassay test. The ABO blood group system was determined by hem agglutination test. A total of 142(33.6%) of the participants were H. pylori positive. The phenotypic frequencies of ABO blood group is O-type202 (47.9%), A-type 121(28.7), B-type 69(16.4%) and AB-type 30(7.1%) and the allelic frequencies of ABO blood group of patients were I A =0.1924, I B = 0.1320 and IO was 0.6756 and genotype frequencies were IAIA =0.0370,IAIO=0.2599,IBIB=0.0174,IBIO=0.1784,IAIB=0.0508,IOIO=0.4564.The prevalen ce in males and females respectively is 75(32 %) and 67(35%). Patients of blood type-A were more prone to H. pylori infection 47(38.8%) than patients in other blood type, and patients in the AB blood type were less prone to H. pylori infection 6 (20%) as compared with patients in other blood type at 0.05 significant level . The finding of this study indicates that people of blood typeA were more susceptible to infection with H. pylori as compared with other blood type. The results of this study also showed that there was a significant association between ABO blood type and H. pylori infection (p-value=0.027) at 0.05 significant level, in which type-A has a greater tendency towards infection and type -AB to non-infection.