Faster Detection of Helicobacter pylori Infection by 13 C-Urea Breath Test. Comparing Short versus Standard Sampling Time.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: 13 C-Urea Breath Test (UBT) is a non-invasive, highly accurate and recommended test to detect Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection and to confirm post-therapy eradication. However, differences exist in terms of manufacturers, dose of labelled urea, addition of citric acid, solid vs. liquid formulation, and sampling times of breath samples. In this study, we compared the diagnostic accuracy of "short" (15 minutes) vs. "standard" (30 minutes) time for a single type of liquid UBT.

METHODS

We compared the performance of a single UBT type (BREATHQUALITY, AB Analitica, Padua, Italy, 10 mL of 75 mg 13 C-Urea and 1.4 g citric acid) during a "short" vs. "standard" breath sampling time. Enrolled were 151 subjects requiring UBT as naïve (N=92) or post-eradication (N=59) checks.

RESULTS

UBT at 15 and 30 minutes were highly comparable, showing optimal correlation in all subsets of patients (i.e. naïve vs. post eradication, negative vs. post eradication check). One discrepant result occurred at the borderline zone of the DOB 4‰, but proved to be true positive at a later confirmation by a second UBT and stool antigen test.

CONCLUSIONS

By shortening the testing time of BREATHQUALITY to 15 minutes (-50%) comparable accuracy will be maintained and in addition, it will bring some benefits to patients' waiting lists, compliance, and hospital staff.