Evaluation of Pyloriset Dry, a new rapid agglutination test for Helicobacter pylori antibody detection

We evaluated the performance of a new latex agglutination test, Pyloriset Dry (Orion Diagnostica, Espoo, Finland), in the simultaneous detection of immunoglobulin G (IgG), IgA, and IgM antibodies to Helicobacter pylori and compared it with that of the Pyloristat test (BioWhittaker, Fontenay-sous-Bois, France), an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay detecting IgG to H. pylori, for 96 untreated dyspeptic patients who had undergone gastroduodenal endoscopy. Infection was diagnosed in 56 cases by positive culture and/or positive Giemsa stain and rapid urease test (antral biopsies) and was associated with chronic gastritis in 52 patients. Forty noninfected patients did not have chronic gastritis. The sensitivity of Pyloriset Dry was 91.1%. The sensitivity of Pyloristat was 91.1 or 82.1%, depending on whether equivocal results were considered positive or negative, respectively. Both tests had a specificity of 87.5%. Their performances were not statistically different. Thus, Pyloriset Dry is an alternative to serological tests for adults, particularly when a small number of serum samples has to be tested.