Up to now, the diagnosis of
H. pylori infection has been made by the breath test using
13C-urea. In this study,
13C-urea breath samples were tested in 34 patients (peptic ulcer scar 17, chronic gastritis 17 cases) with an automated breath
13C analyzer (ABCA. Europa Scientific, Crewe, UK) and compared with the results of endoscopical diagnosis for
H. pylori infection. Endoscopic and
13C-urea breath test (
13C-UBT) were performed before eradicative medication. We described a modified protocol for the growth grade of
H. pylori colonies in microbiology (
H. pylori score), and for the δ
13C area under curve (AUC ; permil*hr) obtained from each sample of expired breath.
There was a significant correlation between δ
13C-AUC and the δ
13C level of each sample, but the correlation coefficient obtained at 10min (R
2=0.582) was lower than that obtained at the other four time points (20min ; 0.891, 30min ; 0.949, 40min ; 0.946, 50min ; 0.946, 60min ; 0.820). The δ
13C-AUC well correlated with
H. pylori score (
p<0.01), none of 26
H. pylori positive patients detected by culture was
13C-UBT negative (δ
13C-AUC<8.2 permil*hr in mean + 2SD of
H. pylori negative group). In conclusion,
13C-UBT using ABCA has high sensitivity and specificity, and it provides a non-invasive method for the detection of
H. pylori urease activity.
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