Comparison of biopsy urease test and histologic examination for detection of campylobacter pylori in duodenal, antral and fundic biopsies.

The presence of Campylobacter pylori was investigated in duodenal, antral and fundic biopsies of 149 consecutive patients undergoing upper gastrointestinal tract endoscopy by biopsy urease tests (CLOtest; "CLO test") and histologic examination ("HIST") after modified Giemsa staining. Positive results were obtained rarely in the duodenum (4.7% and 12.8% by CLO test and HIST, respectively), but equally frequently in antral (48.3% and 62.4%) and fundic biopsies (55.0% and 54.4%). Using combined evaluations ("COMB") of both CLO test and HIST results, and disregarding isolated positive histologic grades "1" as C. pylori negative, the detection rates were 6.0, 53.0 and 56.4% in the above order and 63.1% overall at any of the biopsy sites. There was no close correlation between the rapidity of the color conversion of the biochemical test and the microscopic grading of C. pylori density. A positive CLO test in single antral biopsy specimens was an accurate predictor of the presence of C. pylori as compared with HIST (predictive value positive PVpos 0.97), while negative antral BUT results did not rule out C. pylori colonization of the upper GI tract (PVneg 0.52 compared with HIST). An additional negative CLO test from fundic biopsies increases the PVneg to 0.58.