Advances in diagnosis and treatment of Helicobacter pylori infection.

Helicobacter pylori is a Gram-negative motile bacterium causative agent of acute and chronic digestive and extra-digestive human infections. According to different reports worldwide, H. pylori symptomatic and asymptomatic infections are a global problem. The statistical investigations show a percentage of 50 for people who are involved in H. pylori acute/chronic digestive and/or extra-digestive infections around the world. This review focuses on digestive and extra-digestive diseases caused by H. pylori, the related virulence factors, diagnostic techniques including non-invasive and invasive diagnostics and treatment. There is an abundance of diagnostics for detection and identification of H. pylori. The availability, cost, and the condition of test performance may differ from place to place. To increase the level of reliability in association with diagnostic tools for detecting H. pylori, several techniques must be applied at once as multi-diagnostic technique. Furthermore, there are several pharmacotherapies which can be used for complete eradication of H. pylori infection.