title: Recovery of Helicobacter pylori from gastric biopsy specimens is not dependent on the transport medium used.
abstract: The survival of six clinical isolates of Helicobacter pylori at room temperature was investigated after suspension in five different media: brucella broth with 5% lysed horse blood (BBLH), phosphate-buffered saline (PBS), 20% glucose, Stuart medium, and PBS with 10% Fildes enrichment (PBS-F). Only in BBLH and PBS-F no decrease in mean bacterial numbers was observed during the 24-h study period. No H. pylori isolates could be cultured from Stuart medium after 7 h of incubation. In contrast, the recovery rates in PBS-F or Stuart medium of H. pylori isolates from gastric tissue specimens collected from 19 H. pylori-positive patients were not significantly different even after a delay of culture of up to 24 h. Our data show that the medium composition is not critical for the survival of H. pylori within gastric tissue specimens.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Microbiology and Infection Control, University Hospital VU, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Roosendaal
authors.forename: E J
authors.initials: EJ
authors.lastname: Kuipers
authors.forename: A S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Peña
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: de Graaff
mesh_terms: D001706:Biopsy; D016099:Endoscopy, Gastrointestinal; D016480:Helicobacter pylori / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D006801:Humans; D013270:Stomach / Q000382:microbiology*