['The cag pathogenicity island (cag-PAI) is one of the major virulence factors of Helicobacter pylori, showing considerable geographic variation.', 'We investigated the prevalence of cagA, cagE, and cagT genes of cag-PAI and their association with proinflammatory IL-1B-511/-31/+3954 polymorphisms in Venezuelan chronic gastritis patients from a high-risk gastric cancer region.', 'Presence of cag-PAI genes and IL-1B polymorphisms in 121 biopsy specimens was evaluated by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP), respectively.', 'cagA (+) and triple-positive (cagAET (+)) strains were detected in 79.3% and 70.2% of patients, respectively. We found that infection with cagA (+) and cagAET (+) strains was associated (P < 0.05) with hosts harboring both IL-1B +3954C allele and IL-1B-511T/-31C/+3954C haplotype (TCC (+)). The frequency of gastric atrophy was significantly higher (P < 0.020) among cagAET (+)/IL-1B-TCC (+) combined genotype carriers.'] Is infection with specific Helicobacter pylori-cag pathogenicity island strains associated with interleukin-1B gene polymorphisms in Venezuelan chronic gastritis patients?