CAJ | 학술논문

AIM: The widespread use of antibacterial therapy hasbeen suggested to be the cause for the decline in theprevalence of Helicobacter pyloriinfection. This studyexamine the serial changes of urea breath test resultsin a group of hospitalized patients who were givenantibacterial therapy for non-gastric infections.METHODS: Thirty-five hospitalized patients who weregiven antibacterial therapy for clinical infections,predominantly chest and urinary infections, werestudied. Most (91%) patients were given singleantibiotic of either a penicillin or cephalosporin group.Serial 13C-urea breath tests were performed within 24hours of initiation of antibiotics, at one-week and atsix-week post-therapy. H. pylori infection wasdiagnosed when one or more urea breath tests waspositive.RESULTS: All 35 patients completed three serial ureabreath tests and 26 (74 %) were H. pylori-positive. Ten(38 %) H. pylori-infected patients had at least onenegative breath test results during the study period.The medium delta 13C values were significantly lowerat baseline (8.8) than at one-week (20.3) and six-week(24.5) post-treatment in H. pylori-positive individuals(P=0.022). Clearance of H. pyloriat six-week was onlyseen in one patient who had received anti-helicobactertherapy from another source.CONCLUSION: Our results suggested that one-third ofH. pylori-infected individuals had transient false-negative urea breath test results during treatment withantibacterial agent. However, clearance of H. pyloriinfection by regular antibiotic consumption is rare.