Most physicians will take some blood and send it to a laboratory to determine if you are making antibodies to the bacteria. If you are making antibodies to this bacteria, then it is highly likely that you have been infected with Helicobacter.
Another newer test is called the breath test. The nice thing about this test is that it only requires you to swallow and breath. You swallow a substance called urea. This urea is radioactive. However, you only swallow a very small amount of radioactivity, less radioactivity than what you got from the upper GI series (x-rays). If you are infected with Helicobacter pylori the bacteria will break down the urea to ammonia (very small amounts, mind you) and carbon dioxide. The carbon dioxide is the radioactive part. It is taken up in your blood stream. Your blood releases the carbon dioxide in your lungs and you exhale the carbon dioxide. You then exhale into a bag and the lab determines if any radioactive carbon dioxide is in the bag. The down side is that not all strains of Helicobacter pylori are positive using this test.
A third test that may be performed is a biopsy. Small portions of the stomach and/or duodenum are removed and sent to the lab to determine if infected with Helicobacter pylori. This is oftentimes done while the doctor is performing the endoscopy.
If you have an ulcer and if you are infected with Helicobacter pylori then your physician can prescribe a treatment. These treatments cure up to 90 percent of the patients with ulcers caused by Helicobacter pylori. There are several different treatment regimens. Which one your doctor uses depends on your condition and how willing you are to follow his instructions. Most treatments last about 2 weeks.
There are some treatment failures due to the bacteria being resistant to the antibiotics used. However, for now, these are a minority of the cases. If you want more information then I suggest these sites: The Helicobacter Foundation and The National Institute's Consensus Report on Ulcers or to Medscape's article on recent testing and treatment protocols. To get the entire article you will have to become a member of Medscape. Membership is free and it is a great site! They have a search engine you can use to find the Helicobacter pylori article.
Take Care and Think Microbiologically! For more articles on Microbiology go to Suite101: Microbiology.
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