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Until recently, the urea breath test was the only noninvasive method for detecting residual or recurrent Helicobacter pylori infection after eradication treatment. Although this test is sensitive and specific, it still is not uniformly available and cannot be used until 4 weeks after treatment. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently approved a test for detection of H. pylori antigens in stool. To evaluate the accuracy of the stool antigen test, investigators (at 5 European sites and 1 U.S. site) evaluated 84 consecutive H. pylori-infected patients who were referred for endoscopy.
At baseline and 35 days after completion of eradication therapy (with either omeprazole, amoxicillin and clarithromycin, or ranitidine bismuth citrate for 7…