A study of the relationship between Helicobacter pylori microbial susceptibility, 13C-urea breath test values

Diagnostic methods for Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection can be divided into invasive endoscopic methods and non-invasive methods. A typical and widely used non-invasive method is the 13C urea breath test (UBT). In this study, the possibility of a correlation between pre-treatment UBT values with H. pylori antimicrobial resistance is investigated.

The subjects were 119 consecutive patients who attended this hospital for H. pylori testing. Average age was 47.5 +/- 13.2 years, with a male:female ratio of 2.05:1. The diagnosis was gastric ulcer in 43 subjects, duodenal ulcer in 27, gastroduodenal ulcer in 21 and chronic gastritis in 28. Subjects underwent UBT as well as upper gastrointestinal endoscopy (UGITE). The diagnosis of H. pylori infection was examined by the results of culture, histological examination and the rapid urease test (RUT). The mean inhibitory concentration (MIC) was determined for each antimicrobial agent in the bacterial isolates that could be cultured.

In this study, the sensitivity and specificity were excellent at 97.0% and 100% with a cut-off point of 3.5 per thousand for UBT respectively. Clarithromycin resistance was more common in the group with high UBT values. No correlation at all was seen between UBT values and metronidazole, sparafloxacin, cefaclor and amoxicillin susceptibility.

It is possible that UBT values also tend to be higher in cases of CAM resistance.