Chronic infection may increase the risk for ischemic stroke. Presently, it is 
insufficiently established whether Helicobacter pylori infection represents a 
risk factor for ischemic stroke. We analyzed IgG antibodies against H. pylori in 
109 patients with acute cerebral ischemia and 82 age- and sex-matched control 
patients with non-vascular and non-inflammatory neurological diseases. Antibody 
titers were significantly higher in patients than in control subjects (p=0.007). 
H. pylori seropositivity tended to be more common in patients (odds ratio (OR) 
1.55, 95% confidence interval (ci) 0.87-2.76), but this trend was further 
attenuated in multivariate analysis (OR 1.42; 95% 0.75-2.67) with hypertension, 
diabetes mellitus, current or previous smoking, previous cerebral ischemia and 
low socioeconomic status. H. pylori seropositivity increased the odds for 
cerebral ischemia of atherothrombotic origin in univariate (OR 3.63; 95% ci 
1.37-9.65) and multivariate analysis (OR 3.53; 95% ci 1.09-11.4). H. pylori 
seropositivity may be an independent risk factor for stroke of atherothrombotic 
origin.