SAN DIEGO — The capsule urea breath test is more accurate than conventional endoscopic testing and serology for diagnosing Helicobacter pylori infection, results of a study of 100 patients showed.
The test “may become a good alternative to endoscopy for the diagnosis of H. pylori infection,” researchers led by Dr. Nan-Jing Peng wrote in a poster presented at the annual meeting of the Society of Nuclear Medicine. “This diagnostic method can avoid contamination of urea from oral urease.”
The finding confirms results of a smaller study published by Dr. Peng and her associates last year (World J. Gastroenterol. 2005;11:1361–4).
Dr. Peng, of the department of nuclear medicine at Kaohsiung (Taiwan) Veterans General Hospital, and her associates compared the capsule urea breath test (UBT) with conventional endoscopic testing for the diagnosis of H. pylori in 100 patients. They collected breath samples before and 15 minutes after consumption of capsules containing
The sensitivity of the capsule UBT was 96.4%, compared with 88.3% and 87.3%, respectively, for endoscopic testing and serology. The specificity of capsule UBT was 100%, compared with 100% and 88.9%, respectively, for conventional testing and serology, the investigators reported.
The accuracy of capsule UBT was 98%, which was higher than that of endoscopic testing (93%) and serology (88%).
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