Evaluation of strool antijen test for diagnosis of helicobacter pylori infection

ABSTRACT EVALUATION OF STOOL ANTIGEN TEST FOR DIAGNOSIS OF HELICOBACTER PYLORI INFECTION Several diagnostic tests such as histological examination, culture of gastric biopsy specimens, rapid urease test, ürea breath test and serology are available for evaluating Helicobacter pylori (Hp) infection. Only a short time ago;direct enzym immunoassay (HpSA) began to detect Hp Antigen in stool samples. In this study we aimed to evaluate overall diagnostic sensitivity, specificity and positive and negative predictive values of this new diagnostic test. 79 patients with dyspeptic symptoms (38 males 41 females) were included in this study. All patients were examined by upper gastrointestinal endoscopy. Patient who treatment with proton pomp inhibitors,bismuth compounds or antibiotics in last 15 days were excluded from study. During the endoscopic examination biopsies were taken from antrum and corpus for Hp culture and histological examination. And also stool specimens were submitted to the laboratory to be stored until the HpSA test. HpSA was accepted when culture or histology were positive and at least when two other tests were positive. In our study Hp was found in 54 patients. Hp was found 32 patients by culture; 50 patients by histological examination; 53 patients by CLO; 48 patients by PCR and HpSA respectively. It was found 76% specitivity; 77% sensitivity; 87% PPV; 61% NPV and 77% accuracy. Our results shows similarity to the other studies in Hteratures.And it is better than the other two studies and is nearly equal to the one study which were done in Turkey. Key words:Diagnostic tests, Helicobacter pylori, stool antigen test (HpSA) VIII