Valutazione comparativa di un test immunocromatografico “Helicobacter pylori Antigen Onestep Test” e di due test immunoenzimatici “Fecal-clean H. pylori Ag” e “Amplified IDEIATM Hp StARTM” per la diagnosi di infezione da Helicobacter pylori attraverso ric

Helicobacter pylori causes gastritis and peptic ulcer disease and has been associated with gastric malignancies. During recent years, non invasive diagnostic tests have gained in significance.Well-established non invasive tests are serology and the [13C] urea breath test. Serology, however, is not suitable for an early follow-up examination due to the slow reduction of the anti-H. pylori antibody titer after successful treatment. The [13C] urea breath test-delivering accurate results both in the pretreatment examination of infected individuals and in the early post treatment control-fulfills the demands for such a test. However, expensive instrumentation and a specialized technician are required. Since infected individuals excrete H. pylori in stool specimens, a sufficiently accurate test using feces would be an important alternative to [13C] urea breath test. In this study we compared the diagnostic performances of the immunocromatographic test “Helicobacter pylori Antigen Onestep Test” with those of two enzyme linked immunoassay tecniques “Fecal-clean H. pylori Ag” and “Amplified IDEIATM Hp StARTM” for detection of H. pylori antigens in stool specimens.The values of agreement ranged from 89.6% to 93.6%.