[Urease test, microbiologic tests, histologic and serologic tests for the evaluation of Helicobacter pylori infections in persons with peptic ulcer and gastritis].

The presence of Helicobacter pylori in the gastric mucosa of 150 patients with gastric, duodenal ulcer and endoscopic gastritis was investigated by rapid urease-based test, culture, histological examination and serology. Overall, 78% were positive for Helicobacter pylori by rapid urease-based test, 69.3% by culture, 53.7% by histological staining and 93.2% by serology (p < 0.001). The frequency of Helicobacter pylori was higher in patients with gastric or duodenal ulcer compared with those with endoscopic gastritis and those after gastric resection. However, the differences were significant only with reference to rapid urease-based test, (p < 0.02). The EIA (Roche) serological test had the highest sensitivity and the lowest specificity. This indicates the seed for serological kit to be independently evaluated on the population to be studied. The rapid urease-based test was simple, rapid and inexpensive, and it was more sensitive and equally specific compared with culture and Giemsa stain.