Objective: Rapid urease tests are reliable methods to diagnose Helicobacter pylori (HP) infection in the endoscopy suite. The PyloriTek test kit is a new rapid urease test that has the advantage of a 1-h final reading. The aim of this study was to compare the accuracy of PyloriTek and the test in the diagnosis of H. pylori infection in children.
Methods: Children from four different pediatric gastroenterology centers were recruited prospectively into the study. These children were >5 yr old and had an upper endoscopy procedure. Antral biopsies were examined for both rapid urease tests in the endoscopy suite, and others were sent for routine histological examination.
Results: A total of 242 children were recruited into the study over approximately 1 yr. The concordance between PyloriTek and CLO test was 98% (238 of 242). Twenty-five children were positive for HP organisms by PyloriTek and CLO test, whereas four children were positive by PyloriTek but negative by CLO test. PyloriTek was comparable to CLO test for the diagnosis of HP organisms and HP-associated gastritis. Moreover, in 48% of the positive results, PyloriTek gave significantly faster results than CLO test.
Conclusions: We conclude that PyloriTek is an appropriate rapid urease test to use in children and may have an advantage over the CLO test because of its shorter reading time.