Diagnosis of Helicobacter pylori

Invasive tests are used in most of the studies on Helicobacter pylori. Culture suffers from strict transportation requirements, but, in contrast to histology, allows antimicrobial susceptibility testing and application of various typing methods, especially techniques based on molecular biology, The use oi polymerase chain reaction an tissue obtained directly from biopsies is restricted by inhibition of Tag polymerase in same patients and may lead to false-positive results in others, Attempts to detect viable H. pylori in denial, nasal or faecal specimens have been unconvincing. The two non-invasive tests currently used are the urea breath test and serology (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, Western blot).