Comparison of Serologic and Histologic Tests in Detection of Helicobacter Pylori in Patients with Dyspepsia

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Helicobacter pylori (HP) are one of the most important causes of chronic stomach infection, chronic gastritis, peptic ulcers and stomach cancer in men. Designing rapid, simple and less expensive techniques for its diagnosis lead to early treatment and preventing several complications due to H. Pylori infection. The aim of this research was to compare invasive (histology) and non invasive (serology) methods in HP detection in patients with dyspepsia.METHODS: This analytical study was performed on 150 patients with dyspepsia who referred to Yahyanejad hospital in Babol medical University. All of the patients underwent endoscopy and biopsy was taken from gastric antrum. For detecting helicobacter pylori histological examination by Giemsa staining was done in biopsy specimens and for serologic study serum levels of IgG and IgA were measured by ELISA. Data were statistically analyzed.FINDINGS: From all 150 patients with dyspepsia, serology was positive in 80.7% (n=121) and histology of antrum specimen was positive in 90% (n= 135). Positive histology was seen in 76 males (56.3%) and 59 females (43.7%). In our study, accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, negative predictive value and positive predictive value of serology technique were 78.6%, 82.9%, 40%, 20.6% and 92.5%, respectively. The sensitivity and specificity were 77% and 40% for IgG and were 51.8% and 86.6% for IgA. Accuracy of serology in males was more than females (81.2% vs. 75.7%).CONCLUSION: According to the high sensitivity, low specificity, simplicity, rapidity and lower cost of serologic examination in comparison with histological evaluation for Helicobacter pylori detection in our population, serology can be applied as the best major technique in screening and epidemiological evaluation of H. pylori detection. This report suggests that serological examination must be employed with other standard assessments in diagnosis of H. pylori infection