Clinical usefulness of gastric-juice analysis in 2007: the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.

Background: Gastric juice is usually discarded during upper-GI endoscopy.

Objective: By using a novel device, the Mt 21-42, we evaluated the potential of this important organic fluid in clinical practice, exploring its contribution to the diagnosis of Helicobacter pylori infection and atrophic gastritis of the oxyntic mucosa (AGOM).

Design And Patients: A multicenter study (17,907 patients; 10 endoscopy units) estimated the frequency of diagnosis of AGOM and H pylori infection in routine endoscopic practice.

Mt 21-42: development and validation of an automatic device proposed for the endoscopic diagnosis of Helicobacter pylori infection and atrophic gastritis.

Background: Gastric juice may give important clinico-pathological information, but measurements in this medium are difficult. In this study we present and validate an innovative device (Mt 21-42) performing gastric juice analyses during endoscopy and proposed for the endoscopic diagnosis of Helicobacter pylori infection and hypo/achlorhydria.

Methods: Analyses on both aqueous solutions (80 pH buffer + 120 ammonium chloride samples) and human gastric juice were carried out to assess the measuring performance of Mt 21-42 on the ideal and real matrix, respectively.