title: A new urea broth-based test to detect Helicobacter pylori presence in upper gastrointestinal biopsies.
abstract: The aim of this study was to evaluate the performance of a simple and inexpensive homemade urea test (U-test) to detect Helicobacter pylori in upper digestive tract biopsies. We tested and compared the U-test with three other diagnostic methods: the Clo-test, and culture and pathology in 110 patients randomly chosen at the endoscopy clinic. When using culture and/or pathology as the "gold standard," H. pylori was found to exist in 54 patients. Pathology was positive in 50 cases (92.5%), culture in 49 (90.7%), the U-test in 45 (83.3%), and the Clo-test in 43 (79.6%). With regard to culture pathology, the sensitivities of the U-test and the Clo-test were 83.3% and 79.5%, respectively. Specificity was 100% for both methods. The kappa coefficient calculation between the U-test and the Clo-test was 0.98. The results show that the U-test is a reliable, fast, and inexpensive method for detecting H. pylori in upper gastrointestinal biopsies.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, Hopital Maisonneuve-Rosemont, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Weiss
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Poirier
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Laverdiere
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ducic
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001706:Biopsy; D004064:Digestive System / Q000382:microbiology*; D016480:Helicobacter pylori / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D006801:Humans; D011446:Prospective Studies; D014508:Urea / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D014508:Urea