Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection: Diagnosis & treatment

Diagnosis

Tests and processes used to Ascertain if you have an H. pylori infection include:

1. Blood test.  Evaluation of a blood test can disclose evidence of an active or past H. pylori infection on your system.  But, feces and breath tests are much better at discovering active H. pylori infections than is a blood test.
2. Breath evaluation.  Throughout a breath test, you swallow a pill, liquid or pudding which contains labeled carbon molecules.  In case you have an H. pylori infection, carbon is released while the remedy is broken down into your gut.

Your body absorbs the carbon and then expels it once you exhale.  You exhale to a bag, along with your physician, uses a particular device to discover the carbon molecules.

Acid-suppressing drugs called proton pump inhibitors (PPIs), bismuth subsalicylate (Pepto-Bismol), and antibiotics may interfere with the precision of the evaluation.  Your physician will ask you to stop taking these drugs for a week or two weeks until you've got the test.  This evaluation is also available for adults and kids.

A lab test called a stool antigen test appears for foreign proteins (antigens) related to H. pylori infection on your feces.  Much like all the breath test, PPIs and Bismuth subsalicylate can impact the outcomes of the evaluation, so your health care provider will ask you to stop taking them for fourteen days prior to the exam.

You'll be sedated with this particular test, called an upper endoscopy examination.  During the examination, your doctor threads a long flexible tube equipped with a small camera (endoscope) down your throat and esophagus and into your stomach and duodenum.  This tool allows your physician to see any irregularities in your upper digestive tract and remove tissue samples (biopsy).

These samples are examined for H. pylori infection.  This evaluation isn't normally recommended only to diagnose an H. pylori disease because it's more invasive than a feces or breath evaluation, but it could possibly be used to diagnose H. pylori ulcers or if it's necessary to rule out other gastrointestinal ailments.

Remedy

H. pylori infections are often treated with two distinct antibiotics simultaneously, to help stop the bacteria from creating a resistance to an antibiotic.  Your physician can also prescribe or recommend an acid-suppressing medication, to assist your gut lining cure.

Medicines which can suppress acid comprise:

1. These medications prevent acid from being generated in the gut.  A few examples of PPIs are omeprazole (Prilosecothers), esomeprazole (Nexiumothers), lansoprazole (Prevacidothers) and pantoprazole (Protonixothers).
2. These medicines block a chemical called histamine, which causes acid production.  
3. More commonly called Pepto-Bismol, this medication works by coating the ulcer and protecting it from stomach acid.

Your physician may advise that you undergo testing for H. pylori at least four weeks following your treatment.  If the tests reveal that the treatment was ineffective, you might undergo another form of therapy using another blend of antibiotic drugs.

Share This Post