Evaluation of culture, histological examination, serology and the rapid urease test for diagnosis of Helicobacter pylori in patients with dyspepsia in Bangladesh.

Helicobacter pylori, a gram-negative, microaerophilic bacterium, has been established to have a causal association with chronic gastritis, peptic ulcer, gastric adenocarcinoma, and low-grade lymphoma. The present study was undertaken to evaluate the efficacy of culture, histological examination, the rapid urease test, and serology for the diagnosis of H. pylori infection. A total of 45 consecutive subjects with various upper gastrointestinal symptoms were included in this study. The rates of diagnosis of H. pylori infection were 51.1%, 55.6%, 82.2%, and 93.3%, by culture, rapid urease test (RUT), histological examination, and serology, respectively. The sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive values were 95.5%, 82.6%, 84.0%, and 95.0%, respectively for RUT; 95.5%, 30.4%, 56.8%, and 87.5% for histological examination; 100%, 13.6%, 54.8% and 100% for serology.