COMPARISON OF 2 RAPID WHOLE-BLOOD TESTS FOR HELICOBACTER-PYLORI INFECTION IN CHINESE PATIENTS

Consecutive Chinese patients undergoing endoscopy for dyspepsia were t ested for Helicobacter pylori infection by two rapid whole-blood tests : FlexPack HP (Abbott Laboratories) and Helisal One-Step (Cortecs Diag nostics). Biopsy-based tests (rapid urease test and histology) and the [C-13]urea breath test were used as the ''gold standard.'' One hundre d sixty-one consecutive patients were studied, and 88 (54.7%) were con firmed to have H. pylori infection. The sensitivities, specificities, and positive and negative predictive values were 81.8%, 83.6% (P = 0.0 08), 85.7% (P = 0.04), and 79.2% for FlexPack HP and 84.1%, 63.0% (P = 0.008), 73.3% (P = 0.047), and 76.7% for Helisal One-Step, respective ly.