Objective To evaluate the clinical manifestations, endoscopic features and the clinical pathological characteristics of H. heilmannii-associated gastritis, and to compare these variables with those of H. pylori-ussociated gastritis. Methods The clinical data, endoscopic findings and pathologic characteristics of 3107 patients, who underwent endoscopy from 2005 to 2007, were retrospectively analyzed. Results Twenty-five cases of H. heilmannii infection were identified, the infection rates of H. heilmannii and H. pylori were 0.80% (25/3107) and 4.12% (1060/3107) respectively. Three cases were mixed infections. Of 25 patients, 20 showed such gastroenterologic symptoms to a greater or less extent as abdominal distending pain,nausea and anorexia, and other 5 cases were asymptomatic. All 25 patients showed chronic gastritis by en-doscopy, including chronic superficial gastritis (7/25, 28% ), erosion ( 3/25, 12% ), chronic atrophic gastritis (4/25, 16%), bile reflux(1/25, 4%), ulcer (1/25, 4%), polyp (1/25, 4%) and duodenal bulbar inflammation (2/25, 8% ). In rapid urease test, 3 cases were hyper-positive, 3 cases positive, 7 ca-ses mild-positive and 12 cases negative. According to histological observation, H. heilmannii scattered or ac-cumulated within the gastric pits, glandular lumen or mucus. The organism was observed in parietal cells with cell damage in one case. Sporadic lymphatic and plasmic infiltration were found in all patients with H.heilmannii infection, infiltration of neutrophils (12/25), gland atrophy and intestinal metaplasia (4/25)and lymphoid follicles (6/25) were also observed. Compared with H. pylori-associated gastritis, H. heilman-nii-associated gastritis showed less inflammation, less helicobacter density, mononuclear cell infiltration and neutrophilic activity ( P < 0.05 ). Conclusion H. heilmanaii mainly induces chronic gastritis, which is less severe than H. pylori-associated gastritis.

Type A (AOSpine type) thoracolumbar fractures are the most common. There has long been controversy over their treatment, especially for type A3N0/1, those without neurological injury. Although the fixation with pedicle screws via the anterior and posterior approaches has been widely carried out in clinical practice, such problems as unsatisfactory reduction, kyphosis recurrence and postoperative disc degeneration have not been resolved. In recent years, various attempts have been made to improve the prognosis of type A3 thoracolumbar fractures. This paper reviews the progress in researches on treatment of type A3N0/1 thoracolumbar fractures.