Evaluation of rapid test Assure Helicobacter pylori for diagnosis of H. pylori in pediatric population.

Non-invasive tests are needed to assess Helicobacter pylori infection, especially to screen a pediatric population. Assure H. pylori Rapid Test (Genelabs Diagnostics, Singapore) is an immunochromatographic assay device intended for the rapid detection of antibodies to H. pylori in human serum, plasma or whole blood. The aim of this study was to evaluate the performance of the rapid test, Assure H. pylori, in the diagnosis of H. pylori infection in children, using a Portuguese pediatric population. The study group included 130 children with age ranging from 1 to 14 years old (average age 9.2+/-3.1 years). According to the gold standard, 70 of the 130 patients studied were H. pylori positive and 60 were H. pylori negative. Using Assure H. pylori Rapid Test (Genelabs Diagnostics, Singapore), 53 sera had a positive result after 15 min (resulting in 17 false negatives) and 57 sera a negative result (resulting in 3 false positives). The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV) and negative predictive value (NPV) of the test were 75.7%, 95.0%, 94.6% and 77.0% respectively. When a longer read time of 45 min is considered, the rapid test revealed a good performance (sensitivity 98.6% and specificity 95%) in the evaluation of the H. pylori infection in a pediatric population. In conclusion, the test showed a good performance, suggesting its applicability as a screening method for the H. pylori infection.