title: Modification of Christensen urease test as an inexpensive tool for detection of Helicobacter pylori.
abstract: About half the world population is infected with Helicobacter pylori. Most live in developing countries where clinical studies face the constraints of high costs of imported rapid diagnostic tests. In this work, we describe and validate a simple local urease test (LUT) to determine the presence of the bacterium in gastric biopsies, and report the incidence of infection among symptomatic patients in Caracas, Venezuela. Statistical comparison of LUT and CLOtest (Delta West, Bentley, Australia) (N = 216 patients) showed that the probability of 95% agreement between the two test was 0.936. Overall incidence of infection determined by the LUT was 65% (N = 229), and it was higher in patients from public (72%; N = 153) than from private (50%; N = 76) hospitals (p = .001). Therefore, the incidence of infection differs in two socioeconomic groups that coexist in the same city. LUT may represent an affordable tool in clinical studies needed to identify social factors that increase the risk of infection by H. pylori.
authors.affiliation: Laboratorio de Fisiología Gastrointestinal, Centro de Biofísica y Bioquímica, IVIC, Caracas, Venezuela.
authors.forename: M G
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Domínguez-Bello
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Michelangeli
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Romero
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Beker
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Lara
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Morera
authors.forename: M A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Vezga
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Spardella
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Guelrud
authors.forename: M E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Pérez
authors.forename: L R
authors.initials: LR
authors.lastname: Pericchi
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001431:Bacteriological Techniques / Q000191:economics*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003470:Culture Media; D005260:Female; D005753:Gastric Mucosa / Q000382:microbiology*; D016481:Helicobacter Infections / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology; D016480:Helicobacter pylori / Q000201:enzymology / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013048:Specimen Handling / Q000379:methods; D014510:Urease / Q000191:economics / Q000378:metabolism*; D014687:Venezuela / Q000453:epidemiology
chemical_list: D003470:Culture Media; D014510:Urease