Diagnosis of Helicobacter pylori in Britain

The prevalence of Helicobacter pylori infection in the United Kingdom (UK) is similar to that of other developed Western countries with H. pylori infection a major cause of morbidity from peptic ulcer disease and gastric cancer. Guidelines for testing and treating H. pylori have been published and recommend eradicating H. pylori infection in all patients with peptic ulcer disease. With the increasing efficacy and tolerability of H. pylori treatment and the development of near patient tests there is considerable demand for H. pylori testing for screening as well as pre- and post-treatment. In the future this may change the current pattern of testing towards increased population-based non-invasive testing. Currently most investigation for H. pylori occurs within and is funded by the government health-care system. As no one test is suited to all clinical situations, numerous tests for detecting H. pylori are available; however, growing concern about an increasing endoscopy workload has led to the development of screening protocols for endoscopy based on H. pylori status. In the future, the role of H. pylori testing in the management of dyspepsia may also change based on the results of decision analysis models and community-based trials which are currently being performed in the UK.