Comparative Study of Modified Silver Nitrate Staining for the Detection of Helicobacter pylori

Helicobacter pylori (Hp) infection is associated with a variety of diseases, such as benign lesions, precancerous lesions, and malignant lesions, especially diseases in the digestive system. Most people with Hp infection have mild early symptoms that are not easily noticed. Therefore, the diagnosis and treatment of Hp infection is particularly important. At present, there are many methods to detection Hp infection, but there is a lack of effective detection method with high sensitivity and specificity. On the basis of the existing detection methods, the modified silver nitrate staining method in this study improved the sensitivity and specificity of Hp detection.

We selected gastric antrum and gastric angle mucosal biopsy tissues from 60 inpatients that were archived in the Pathology Department of Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University from July to December 2020. An Hp immunohistochemical assay, histochemical assay kit (methylene blue), and modified silver nitrate staining were used to measure the Hp infection positivity rate.

Comparison of Hp sensitivity and specificity among the 3 methods showed that the modified silver nitrate staining method was the most excellent. The sensitivity of modified silver nitrate staining method was 98.3%, which is statistically significantly higher compared with the other 2 methods.

The modified silver nitrate staining method for Hp detection is convenient and effective, and could be widely used for clinical Hp detection.