title: Laboratory diagnosis of Helicobacter pylori infection by polymerase chain reaction.
abstract: Although the detection of Helicobacter pylori (Hp) infection is important, it is a rather difficult task using only conventional diagnostic techniques. In this study, we have applied a polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based assay for the diagnosis of Hp infection. RT-PCR for Hp ribosomal RNA was utilized, using the gastric biopsy specimens obtained endoscopically from 10 patients. PCR primers have been designed from the highly consensus region of the 7 different Hp rRNA sequences in GenBank. In the detection of Hp, PCR was more sensitive than culturing and showed 100% of the sensitivity and specificity compared with histology. Our primer pair could detect as few as 50 organisms per reaction. RT-PCR for Hp rRNA is a sensitive and specific method to detect Hp infection in the gastric mucosa.
authors.affiliation: VA. Medical Center, Long Beach, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ichikawa
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mitsuhashi
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ishikawa
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Wyle
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Fujiwara
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Arakawa
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Shimada
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tarnawski
mesh_terms: D001483:Base Sequence; D001706:Biopsy; D005753:Gastric Mucosa / Q000382:microbiology; D016481:Helicobacter Infections / Q000175:diagnosis*; D016480:Helicobacter pylori / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D006801:Humans; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction