Accuracy of serology and 13C-urea breath test for detection of Helicobacter pylori in children.

Background: Indirect noninvasive methods, such as the 13C-urea breath test and serology, can be useful for the detection of Helicobacter pylori infection in children. We analyzed retrospectively the diagnostic accuracy of these two methods.

Patients And Methods: Between September, 1989, and October, 1996, H.

Detection of Helicobacter pylori infection in children with a standardized and simplified 13C-urea breath test.

Background: The 13C-urea breath test, a reliable noninvasive method of detection of Helicobacter pylori in adults, needs validation in children.

Methods: In order to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of 13C-urea breath test in children, the results of this test performed in 144 children were correlated with the histology and culture of contemporaneous gastric (antral and fundic) biopsy specimens. The test was performed with 2 mg/kg body weight 13C-Urea (maximum, 100 mg) ingested after a fat-rich test meal.

Evolution of Helicobacter pylori positivity in infants born from positive mothers.

To evaluate the mother-child transmission of anti-Helicobacter pylori antibodies, we investigated 562 pregnant women by means of a commercially available second-generation enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay for the detection of anti-H. pylori IgG (Malakit Helicobacter pylori). One hundred twenty-eight of the 562 women had a positive serology for H.

Contribution of the 13C-urea breath test to the detection of Helicobacter pylori gastritis in children.

Serology, 13C-urea breath test, histology, Campylobacter-like organism testing, and culture were performed in 95 consecutive children to evaluate the contribution of these tests to the detection of Helicobacter pylori infection. In analyses considering any combination of three positive tests as "gold standard" for diagnosing H pylori infection, 26 children were Helicobacter positive (27%), which is only one patient more than the number of children with only a positive culture. The accuracy of culture was excellent when "any combination of three positive tests" was used as the gold standard (sensitivity 96%, specificity 100%, positive predictive value 100% [false positivity 0%], negative predictive value 99% [false-negative results 1%]).