title: Detection of Helicobacter pylori gene by means of immunomagnetic separation-based polymerase chain reaction in feces.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Detection of Helicobacter pylori is usually performed by culture, polymerase chain reaction (PCR), histology, or urease test on gastric biopsy samples. Although methods based on feces are non-invasive, their sensitivity has been relatively low. In this study, to improve its sensitivity, immunomagnetic separation (IMS) was used as a pre-PCR step for direct detection of H. pylori in feces.
  
  
  METHODS
  Fresh fecal samples were taken from 72 patients attending for endoscopy. Of these, 57 patients had a positive H. pylori status according to the results of culture, histology, and PCR on gastric biopsy samples. Anti-H. pylori antibody-sensitized immunomagnetic beads were used to concentrate the bacteria. PCR was then performed to detect the H. pylori urease A-encoding gene.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of the 57 H. pylori-positive patients, 35 (61.4%) had positive fecal samples by IMS-based PCR method. None of the 15 H. pylori-negative patients had positive fecal samples. The sensitivity of this method was 61.4%, and the specificity 100.0%.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study confirms that non-invasive diagnosis of H. pylori infection could be made from feces by using IMS-based PCR.
authors.affiliation: Dept. of Gastroenterology, Kobe City General Hospital, Kobe Institute of Health, Japan.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Watanabe
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tomita
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kudo
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kurokawa
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Orino
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Todo
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Chiba
mesh_terms: D005243:Feces / Q000382:microbiology; D005260:Female; D005798:Genes, Bacterial; D016481:Helicobacter Infections / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology; D016480:Helicobacter pylori / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D006801:Humans; D018189:Immunomagnetic Separation; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity