New immunological assays for the diagnosis of Helicobacter pylori infection

There are several types of immunological tests available for the diagnosis and management of Helicobacter pylori infection. Most commercially availabl e serological kits use the enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) test f ormat. Originally the kits used crude antigen preparations although many of the newer kits use a more purified antigen preparation, with often increas ed specificity but lower sensitivity. Near patient test kits are based eith er on latex agglutination or immunochromatography. Generally they have low sensitivities compared with laboratory tests. Western blotting, ELISA, and recombinant immunoblot assays (RIBA) have also been developed into commerci ally available kits and can be used to indicate the presence of specific vi rulence markers. An antigen detection kit has been developed for the detect ion of Helicobacter pylori in faeces. Immunological reagents have also been combined with other diagnostic modalities to develop immunohistochemical s tains DNA immunoassays.