The breath sample is sent to Shands hospital at UF to screen for 13C carbon dioxide levels, which signal the presence of H. pylori. You can make the diagnosis and after you treat the patient, if the breath test is normal, it shows you have eradicated the bacterium. Physicians, however, are just not comfortable with breath tests. In contrast, endoscopy requires patients to fast the night before the procedure. They then are sedated while a fiber-optic scope is inserted down the esophagus into the stomach and small intestine.
Recovery takes several hours.
The blood test could be even less expensive, representing significant savings, he said. Very few new infections are occurring in the U.S. right now because of better sanitation. This disease could largely disappear. UF researchers, who are receiving NIH funding for these projects, will lead it. Other participating sites include Sinai Hospital in Detroit, Syracuse University, the University of Michigan, the University of South Carolina-Columbia and the University of Southern California.