Abstract

Introduction: Helicobacter pylori is a highly prevalent bacterium in Chile that causes various gastric pathologies including gastric cancer, which corresponds to the leading cause of cancer-related death in Chile in men. This is why early detection of an Helicobacter pylori infection is gaining importance, for tis purpose there are various diagnostic methods, including rapid urease tests (RUT) such as the Sensibacter pylori test®. Objectives: To validate the Sensibacter pylori test® in Chile, so that it may be used in healthcare centres in our country. Materials and Methods: Upper gastrointestinal endoscopies were performed on symptomatic patients in 3 healthcare centres and gastric mucosa samples were obtained following established protocols. These underwent the health centre´s RUT and the Sensibacter pylori test®, and the results were compared to the gastric mucosa histology (gold standard) Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV) and negative predictive value (NPV) were calculated for each test. Kappa test was used to assess agreement between the RUT’s and the turning time of each test was measured. Results: Sensibacter pylori test® showed a sensitivity of 82.6%, specificity 92.3%, PPV 95% and NPV 75%. The consistency with the other RUT’s was 0.958 (p < 0.001) and 0.872 (p < 0.001). The turning time was 15 min. Conclusion: Sensibacter pylori test® is a sensitive and specific method, similar to other tests used daily in Chile, which has the advantage of yielding results within a few minutes.