ArticleUnited European gastroenterology journal2015
Occult H. pylori infection partially explains 'false-positive' results of (13)C-urea breath test.
Article in United European gastroenterology journal, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 12 citations in OpenAlex.
- Non-invasive diagnostic tests for Helicobacter pylori infection.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2018Pooled it
- Helicobacter pylori Gastritis as an Initial Presentation of Evolving Autoimmune Gastritis: A Report of Two Cases.Internal medicine (Tokyo, Japan) · 2026Article
- OccultFrontiers in microbiology · 2026Article
- Diagnostic value of combined detection of pepsinogen, gastrin-17, andFrontiers in pediatrics · 2025Review
- Dysbiosis by Eradication ofMicroorganisms · 2023Article
- Droplet Digital PCR Detects Low-Density Infection in a Significant Proportion of Helicobacter Pylori-Negative Gastric Biopsies of Dyspeptic Patients.Clinical and translational gastroenterology · 2020Article
- Are the view of Helicobacter pylori colonized in the oral cavity an illusion?Experimental & molecular medicine · 2017Review
- Diagnostic methods for H. pylori infection: Choices, opportunities and pitfalls.United European gastroenterology journal · 2015Article
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13 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundIn a previous study, UBiT-100 mg, (Otsuka, Spain), a commercial (13)C-urea breath test omitting citric acid pre-treatment, had a high rate of false-positive results; however, it is possible that UBiT detected low-density 'occult' infection missed by other routine reference tests. We aimed to validate previous results in a new cohort and to rule out the possibility that false-positive UBiT were due to an 'occult' infection missed by reference tests.
methodsDyspeptic patients (n = 272) were prospectively enrolled and UBiT was performed, according to the manufacturer's recommendations. Helicobacter pylori infection was determined by combining culture, histology and rapid urease test results. We calculated UBiT sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values (with 95% CI). In addition, we evaluated 'occult' H. pylori infection using two previously-validated polymerase chain reaction (PCR) methods for urease A (UreA) and 16 S sequences in gastric biopsies. We included 44 patients with a false-positive UBiT, and two control groups of 25 patients each, that were positive and negative for all H. pylori tests.
resultsUBiT showed a false-positive rate of 17%, with a specificity of 83%. All the positive controls and 12 of 44 patients (27%) with false-positive UBiT were positive for all two PCR tests; by contrast, none of our negative controls had two positive PCR tests.
conclusionsUBiT suffers from a high rate of false-positive results and sub-optimal specificity, and the protocol skipping citric acid pre-treatment should be revised; however, low-density 'occult' H. pylori infection that was undetectable by conventional tests accounted for around 25% of the 'false-positive' results.
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