ORIGINAL ARTICLES

Recognition of the role of Helicobacter pylori gastric infection in human disease has dramatically changed the management of peptic ulceration, and the Nobel honours bestowed on Marshall and Warren in 2005 in acknowledgement of their landmark research has focused public attention on this organism.1-3 Furthermore, the neoplastic potential of H. pylori, which is defined as a type 1 carcinogen, is well recognised and has resulted in some advocating the widespread, worldwide eradication of this infection.2,4,5 A diagnosis of H. pylori infection is readily made using non-invasive tests, such as 13C and 14C urea breath testing, stool antigen analysis or H. pylori serology. Alternatively, infection can be detected in gastric biopsies obtained at endoscopy, through histological staining, tissue culture or polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Far simpler, however, is to diagnose the bacterium by detecting th