Diagnosis of Helicobacter pylori infection in adult and pediatric patients by using Pyloriset, a rapid latex agglutination test.

Pyloriset (Orion Diagnostica, Espoo, Finland) is a rapid antibody test using latex particles coated with acid-extracted antigen of Helicobacter pylori. We evaluated its ability to predict infection in 100 adult patients and 50 pediatric patients referred for gastric endoscopy. Sixty of 65 H. pylori-infected adults were correctly identified by the test. There were 12 false-positive and 5 false-negative reactions seen. Pyloriset had a sensitivity of 92% and a specificity of 66%. The positive predictive value was 83% and the negative predictive value 82%. In contrast, sensitivity dropped to 36% in the pediatric patients and the positive predictive value was only 40%. Pyloriset could become an important alternative to other more time-consuming diagnostic tests for H. pylori-infected adult patients but is inadequate for diagnosis of pediatric H. pylori infection.