Outcome of patients with inconsistent results from 13C-urea breath test and bacterial culture at the time of assessment of Helicobacter pylori eradication therapy in Japan.

Abstract

At the assessment of eradication therapy of Helicobacter pylori, the results of 13C-urea breath test and other methods such as bacterial culture are occasionally inconsistent. In this study, we examined the outcomes of inconsistent results.
Four hundred and four patients with peptic ulcer who were H. pylori-positive and who had completed eradication therapy were studied. Bacterial culture, rapid urease tests and 13C-urea breath test were performed between one and three months after the end of the therapy. The cut-off value for the 13C-urea breath test used originally in this study was 2.5 per mil. We investigated the outcome of inconsistent results by following up the patients every 6 to 12 months.
At the initial assessment of eradication therapy, we observed inconsistent results with bacterial culture and 13C-urea breath test in 43 of 404 patients. Most of them (40 of 43) were culture-negative but urea breath test-positive, and the majority became negative for both tests. Based on the follow-up results, the optimum value for 13C-urea breath test at the assessment of eradication therapy was found to be 3.5 per mil.
We found that outcomes of inconsistent results were variable, indicating the importance of the follow-up of patients after eradication therapy of H. pylori.