Acurateţea testelor neinvazive la copii pentru precizia diagnosticului de infecţie cu Helicobacter pylori

Abstract

Helicobacter pylori infection is aquired in childhood, af­fects more than half of the world population and is as­so­cia­ted with chronic gastritis. The majority of the in­fec­ted children are asymptomatic. The most frequently used tests for the detection of Helicobacter pylori are ¹³C urea breath test and stool antigen test. Objective. In this stu­dy, we evaluated the accuracy and the utility of the ¹³C urea breath test and Helicobacter pylori stool antigen test in young children. We performed a prospective ob­ser­­va­­tio­nal study of 52 symptomatic children, mostly with uninvestigated dyspepsia suggestive for an or­ga­nic di­sease. The ¹³C urea breath test was used as gold stan­dard method for the diagnosis of Helicobacter py­lo­ri in­fec­tion. Forty-two of the 52 studied children had a po­si­tive ¹³C urea breath test, respectively 21 of 42 Heli­co­bac­ter pylori infected children presented a positive rapid stool antigen test for Helicobacter pylori. Our study did not reveal a strong agreement between Helicobacter py­lo­ri rapid stool antigen test and ¹³C urea breath test. The management of Helicobacter pylori infection in chil­dren remains a problem in clinical practice, therefore test­ing for Helicobacter pylori infection has become a very important part of the diagnostic process. Another mul­ti­cen­ter study from our country is recommended.