14C-urea breath test in C pylori gastritis.

Abstract

SUMMARY`4C-urea breath test was used to detect Campylobacter pylorn colonisation in 129 consecutive non-ulcer There is increasing interest in the presence of Campylobacter pylori in gastric biopsies and their possible role in the aetiology of gastritis and peptic ulcer.'`This spiral organism colonises the gastric antrum in 90-100% of patients with duodenal or gastric ulcer and in 50-70% of patients with non-ulcer dyspepsia.7-" C pylori is also present in 20% of asymptomatic individuals.7 C pylori colonisation can be established by culture or histological examination of antral mucosal biopsies. The use of endoscopy to obtain biopsies precludes large scale epidemiologic studies of this organism. We have previously reported that Cpylori has a very high urease activity.7 Intragastric hydrolysis of urea will result in the production of carbon dioxide and the generation of ammonia. We have utilised this urease activity to

Carbon-14-Urea Breath Test as a Noninvasive Method to Monitor <i>Helicobacter</i><i>felis</i> Colonization in Mice

“…2), similarly to humans in whom the presence of food in the stomach increased both the amount and duration of labelled C 0 2 expiration [13]. But in contrast to what was observed in humans [14] or in ferrets [10], food uptake interfered with the predictive diagnostic value of the breath test (Fig. 2).…”

A Review of Diagnostic Techniques for <i>Helicobacter pylori </i>Infection

“…Peak concentrations in the expelled air are reached after approximately 20-60 min. The test can be shortened to a 30-min examination for adequate distinction of H. pylori-positive and -negative individuals [45], With measure ments over a 2-hour time period, the area under the curve can be calculated, which re flects the total bacterial urease activity in the stomach and hence is a measure of the patient's bacterial load [44], Some authors state that it is necessary to cither avoid giving fE-blockers for 48 h prior to the breath test, or to wash out the patient's mouth prior to the examination because of the theoretical risk of urea-splitting mouth organisms confounding the test results [46], Others consider these precautions to be unnecessary [44,48], The patient's age should be taken into account in order to optimize the interpretation of the breath test [45,51], Which test is applied in daily practice depends on the availability of the appropriate analytical instruments. For the 14C-urea breath lest a sim ple scintillation p-counter is used; for the l3C-urea breath test a gas isotope ratio mass spec trometer is required, an instrument not avail able in every hospital.…”

Real-Time Quantitative PCR for Detection ofHelicobacter pylori

“…The urease assays are not sensitive (12,49,52) and may not be specific in the presence of other urease-positive bacteria (37,38). Serology may not differentiate active from past infection and cannot be used to indicate the clearance of H. pylori from the stomach because antibodies may stay at the same level even after eradication of the bacteria.…”