HELICOBACTER-PYLORI ANTIBODIES IN A SAUDI POPULATION

The authors determined the sensitivity and specificity of a rapid late x-agglutination test (Pylori-set) to detect Helicobacter pylori infect ion and screened an asymptomatic Saudi population in different age gro ups for H. pylori seroprevalence. The study was designed as a blind co mparison of a commercial serologic test kit for serologic diagnosis of H. pylori with a standard biopsy-related test in a tertiary referral center and teaching hospital. We included 70 symptomatic male and fema le Saudi patients, as well as 90 randomly collected sera from asymptom atic Saudi patients. The sensitivity of the Pylori-set was 59%, with a specificity of 89%. Screening of the asymptomatic Saudi population sh owed an age increase in antibody prevalence, Because of the limited se nsitivity in the investigated population, the use of this latex-agglut ination test alone cannot be recommended for the serological diagnosis of H. pylori infection in the Saudi population.