Accuracy of a rapid 10-minute carbon-14 urea breath test for the diagnosis ofHelicobacter pylori-associated peptic ulcer disease

✍ Scribed by Chia-Hung Kao; Chih-Kua Huang; Shyh-Jen Wang; Chung-Yuan Hsu; Wan-Yu Lin; Gran-Hum Chen

• Publisher: Springer
• Year: 1993
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 355 KB
• Volume: 20
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0340-6997
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00181763

✦ Synopsis

Urease in the human gastric mucosa is a marker for infection with Helicobacter pylori (HP), an organism which is associated with peptic ulcer disease. To detect gastric urease, we examined 184 patients (144 males, 40 females; mean age: 49.8+ 15.6 years) with suspected peptic ulcer disease. Fasting patients were given orally 5 gCi of carbon-14 labelled urea. From each patient only one breath sample was collected in hyamine at 10 rain. The amount of ~4C collected at 10 rain was expressed as follows: [(DPM/mmol CO2 collected)/(DPM administered)] x 100 x body weight (kg). The presence of HP colonization was determined by examination of multiple endoscopic prepyloric antral biopsy specimens subjected to culture or a rapid urease test. For the purpose of this study, HP-positive patients were defined as those with characteristic bacteria as indicated by a positive result of either the culture or the rapid urease test; HP-negative patients were defined as those with negative findings on both the culture and the rapid urease test. Of the 184 cases, 99 (53.8%) were positive for HP infection, and 85 (46.2%), negative. The sensitivity and specificity of the rapid 10 min 14C-urea breath test for the diagnosis of HP-associated peptic ulcer disease were evaluated by a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve with a variable cut-off value from 1.5 to 4.5. When a cut-off value of 1.5 was selected, the sensitivity was 100% and the specificity, 83.5%; when a cut-off value of 4.5 was selected, the sensitivity was 54.5% and the specificity, 97.6%.