Diagnosis of helicobacter pylori infection by polymerase chain reaction: is it worth it?

The aim of this study was to determine to what degree polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was superior to histology and culture, and whether a noncommercial urease test was of value, in detecting Helicobacter pylori in gastric biopsy specimens. Gastric biopsy specimens from the antrum and corpus of 134 consenting patients were subjected to PCR, targeting the glmM (ureC) gene, histology, culture, and a rapid urease test. PCR detected H. pylori in the biopsy specimens from 59 patients. All methods showed a high degree of sensitivity and specificity, but histology gave 2 false-negatives, and culture and the urease test gave 1 false-negative compared with PCR. PCR of a glmM gene segment was superior to the other methods for the detection of H. pylori infection and was comparable to histology in terms of cost. Nevertheless, in this study, histology and culture were found to be relatively reliable methods for examining gastric biopsy specimens.