Usefulness of antral brushing samples stained with Diff-Quik in the cytologic diagnosis of Helicobacter pylori. A comparative methodologic study.

We studied the usefulness of antral cytologic specimens obtained by brushing and stained with Diff-Quik in the diagnosis of gastric colonization by Helicobacter pylori in 102 patients, comparing this method with other commonly employed techniques. We report on the sensitivity, specificity, predictive value for positive and negative cases of each of the techniques used, and diagnostic problems posed by each. In general, the Diff-Quik-stained samples proved to be the most useful. This technique is a simple, economical and practical method for the diagnosis of gastric colonization by H pylori.