Need help with Korean diagnosis

[dantium]

I live in South Korea and had chest pains for a while so I went for an endoscopy. The doctor said that I have Gastritis and 'Reflux esophagitis' he gave me some medicine, I think antiacids which I took and felt a bit better but was still getting pains, so after reading a bit on the Internet I went back and asked if it could be H.Pylori - he told me that there is no point in checking for that if I don't have any signs of ulcers, is this true? He also said if I had H.Pylori and got rid of it, it would just return as about 80% of people in Korea have this, is this true? He then gave me some PPI meds and other things which really did help but now after a week or so the pain is returning.

If someone could clear up these points I would be grateful, thanks so much.

[Helico_expert]

your doctor is simply following the guideline. but do you want to know if your H. pylori is eradicated? i bet you do and you should get yourself tested. if you dont, you'll never know if your next "infection" is because of the failure of current treatment or genuine re-infection.

[dantium]

Yes I do want to find out and I think I will go to a different doctor to get a test done.

But is it common that Gastritis is not caused by H.Pylori if there are no signs of ulcers?

[dantium]

Sorry, one other question could 'Reflux esophagitis' be caused by H. pylori, is it different from gastritis?

Thanks for the help

[Helico_expert]

there is such thing as non-h. pylori related gastritis. the reason is still unknown. it's perhaps related to unknown virus, fungus, bacteria or parasite. if you are lucky, the antibiotics you used for H. pylori will sometimes kill the unknown pathogen too.

gastritis is the inflammation of your stomach and Reflux esophagitis is the inflammation of your throat cause by reflux.

there is a debate if H. pylori causes reflux. some suggest that H. pylori protect patient from reflux because after H. pylori treatment, a small portion of people develop reflux problem.