Correlation between rapid urease test and pathohistological gastrobiopsy finding with positive immunological test in detecting Helicobacter pylori infection

INTRODUCTION: Helicobacter pylori is a bacterium that has been in the limelight of gastroenterologists and oncologists worldwide since its immediate effect on the development of gastritis, ulcer disease, mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue lymphoma and gastric cancer was proved. The aim of this study was to determine the correlation between the positive immunological test, rapid urease test and pathohistological finding in detecting Helicobacter pylori infection of the gastric mucosa. MATERIAL AND METHODS: This retrospective study included 250 endoscopic findings of subjects having undergone endoscopy in the first half of 2010 at the Ward of Gastroenterology, Department of Internal Diseases, Hospital in Senta. The endoscopy procedure was performed by Fujinon endoscopes and the fast urease test was done by the Cambridge Life Science set from England. The immunological test was carried out by the Vidas apparatus applying the Enzyme-Linked Fluorescent Assay (ELFA) technique and the staining for the pathohistological analysis was done by the modified Giemsa method. RESULTS: The paper presents the results obtained by endoscopic examination of a group of 250 patients performed at the Ward of Gastroenterology, Department of Internal Diseases, Hospital in Senta. The endoscopic findings were the first to be analyzed then the rapid urease test findings, which showed that 95 (38%) patients were positive and 155 (62%) patients were negative; whereas the immunologic test for Helicobacter pylori was positive in all 250 patients (100%). The histological test for Helicobacter-Like Organism was positive in 105 subjects (42%), whereas it was negative in 145 patients, that being 58% of all the cases. Sensitivity, specificity and predictability of the serological test and the rapid urease test were calculated according to the pathohistological finding as the "gold standard" and they were found to be: sensitivity 100% and specificity 0% for the serological test and sensitivity 90% and specificity 100% for the rapid urease test. The immunologic test was not correlated with other findings, and there was a high level of correlation between the rapid urease test and histological test (r = 0.927589261). The t-test was calculated to be 36.16513; p = 0.0001; that indicating that the correlation coefficient was statistically significant (p > 0.01). DISCUSSION: The obtained results were compared with the data found in the available literature sources. CONCLUSION: It can be concluded that the most competent technique for the optimal diagnosis of Helicobacter pylori infection is the invasive one with the pathohistological examination of bioptates together with the rapid urease test.