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Urea Breath Test and Rapid Urease Test

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Helicobacter pylori

Abstract

The urea breath test (UBT) and the rapid urease test (RUT) are the most commonly used diagnostic methods for H. pylori infection and rely on detecting the presence of urease produced by H. pylori. The sensitivity of the UBT is excellent (often exceeding 95 %). The majority of false-positive results after eradication occur when the results are near the cutoff value and are most frequent in areas where atrophic gastritis is common and citric acid is not used as an adjuvant. The sensitivity of RUT is slightly less (approximately 80–95 %). Increasing the number and size of biopsy fragments, collecting them from the antrum and corpus, or sampling gastric mucus more widely instead of biopsy samples achieves better results with the RUT. Negative results of the either test should not be taken as evidence of the absence of the infection especially in PPI users as well as in patients with bleeding or a history of partial gastrectomy.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Internal Medicine, Kawasaki Medical School, 577 Matsushima, Kurashiki, Okayama, 701-0192, Japan

    Akiko Shiotani

  2. Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Sassari, Sassari, Italy

    Maria Pina Dore

  3. Department of Medicine, Michael E. DeBakey VAMC and Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA

    David Y. Graham

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  1. Akiko Shiotani
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  2. Maria Pina Dore
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  3. David Y. Graham
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Correspondence to Akiko Shiotani .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Medical Education Center, Keio University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan

    Hidekazu Suzuki

  2. The Royal Perth Hospital, The University of Western Australia and, Western Australia, West Australia, Australia

    Robin Warren

  3. The Royal Perth Hospital, The University of Western Australia and, Western Australia, Australia

    Barry Marshall

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Shiotani, A., Dore, M.P., Graham, D.Y. (2016). Urea Breath Test and Rapid Urease Test. In: Suzuki, H., Warren, R., Marshall, B. (eds) Helicobacter pylori. Springer, Tokyo. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-55705-0_9

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